TP 


UC-NRLF 


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GIFT  OF 
Prof.    E.J«\<ickson 


DEPHT 


SUGAR 


MADE  FROM 


MAIZE  AND  SORGHUM 


A  NEW  DISCOVERY. 


BY    F.    L.    STEWART. 


WASHINGTON,  D.  C. : 
THE    REPUBLIC    COMPANY, 

Cor.  Pa.  Ave.  and  llth  St., 
1878. 


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CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

PLAN  OF  SUGAR  FACTORY,   ---.-..       i 
PREFACE,         --_-....__       g 

CHAPTER  I— Introduction,      --.....9 

Complex  Nature  of  Saccharine  Juices— Distinctive  Prop- 
erties of  Cane  Sugar— Classification  of  Saccharine  Plants 
—Maize  and  Sorghum  as  Sugar  Plants— Peculiarities  of 
their  Juices — Errors  Corrected — Inapplicability  of  Old  Pro- 
cesses to  Extraction  of  Sugar  from  Them— Necessity  of 
New  Modes  of  Treatment— Their  Product— Cane  Sugar- 
Spurious  Corn  Sngar— Sources  of  Sugar  Production  within 
the  United  States  heretofore  — Inadequacy  of  Them — The 
Sugar  Cane  in  Louisiana— Causes  of  Deterioration. 

CHAPTER  II— Maize,     -       - -       15 

Origin  and  Early  History  of  Maize— Evidences  of  its 
Existence  in  America  irom  Pre-historic  Times — Uses  of  the 
Immature  Plant  by  the  North  American  Indians — Its  Sac- 
charine Value  Recognized—  Maize  Among  the  Aztecs— Mexi- 
can Sugar— More  Recent  Experiments  in  the  United  States — 
Their  Character — Biot's  Analysis  in  France — Erroneous 
Theories— Unsatisfactory  Results— Obstacles  to  Success  De- 
fined and  Causes  of  Failure— New  Researches  Made  Ne- 
cessary. 

CHAPTER  III— Result  of  Investigation,  21 

Similarity  in  Chemical  Constitution  of  the  Juice  of  Maize 
and  Sorghum— Important  Discoveries —  New  Process  De- 
vised Which  is  Applicable  to  Both  Plants— Significance  of 
These  Facts— Present  Capacity  of  the  United  States  for 
Sugar  Production  from  these  Sources-- Adaptation  to  Present 
Wants— Why  Their  Value  was  Not  Recognized  Heretofore. 

CHAPTER  IV—  Sorghum, -       -       24 

Historical  Sketch  of  the  Plant— Period  of  its  Introduction 
into  France  and  the  United  States — Sorghum  in  China — 
South  African  Varieties— Specific  Characters— Results  of 
Acclimation — Prominent  Varieties  now  in  Cultivation — 
Asiatic  and  African  Races— New  Varieties— Early  Amber 
Cane— New  H3'brid— New  Chinese  Varieties. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  V — Maize  and  Sorghum  as  Sugar  Plants,         -        28 

Value  of  Sorghum  and  Maize  as  Sugar  Plants — Nature 
of  the  New  Investigations  Made — Errors  Corrected— Hither- 
to Discordant  Statements  Reconcilable — Newly  Estab- 
lished Facts— Comparison  with  the  Sugar  Beet  in' France— 
Adaptation  of  Maize  and  Sonrhum  to  the  Climate  of  the 
United  Stales — Value  of  American  Corn — Overproduction 
— Relief  of  Unproductive  Labor — New  Use  for  Unemployed 
Machinery — Choice  of  Varieiies  in  the  Use  of  Corn  and 
Cane— Brief  Period  of  Growth  Comparatively— Greater 
Climatic  Range — Causes  of  Failure  ol  Beet-growing  in  the 
United  States  —Effects  of  Moister — Soils — Manures — Greater 
Simplicity  and  Much-diminished  Expense  of  the  New  Pro- 
cess— Improvement  of  tlie  Soil — Yield  of  Corn  and  Sorghum 
in  Sugar— Gross  Yield  of  Maize  and  the  Beei  in  France- 
Conclusions. 

CHAPTER  VI — System  of  Manufacture,  38 

Preparatory  Work— Selection  of  Seed — Extension  of  Sugar 
Season  by  a  Proper  Choice  of  Varieties — Prominent  Large 
Stemmed  Varieties  of  Corn  and  Sorghum — Modes  of  Has- 
tening Germination— Preparation  of  i  he  Soil— Fall  Plowing 
— Clovering — Drianage — Fertilizers— Influence  of  Ammonia 
— Effects  of  Certain  M  neral  Salts  on  Crystallization — Ef- 
fects of  Moderate  Stimulation  by  Use  of  Ammoniacal  Ma- 
nures—Gypsum. 

CHAPTER  VI [ — System  of  Manufacture,  44 

Yield  of  Cane  and  Corn — Proper  Distribution  so  as  to  Se- 
cure a  Uniform  Yield— Preparation  f  jrPlanting— Combiued 
Effect  of  Clover  and  Gypsum — Early  Cultivation— Influence 
of  Lime  Soils— Advantages  of  a  Combined  Crop— Harvest  ing 
— Proper  Period  for  Cutting — Preparation  of  Dried  Sweet 
Corn— Evil  Effects  of  the  Storing  of  Cane  or  Corn— Conver- 
sion of  Sugar— Stripping— Protection  from  Sudden  Frost. 

CHAPTER  VIII — Sugar  Machinery,      -----        49 

Inapplicability  of  the  System  of  Maceration  and  Percola- 
tion for  Extraction  of  these  Juices— Loss  from  Inefficiency 
of  Mills— Capacity  of  Mills,  how  Increased— Results  of  Re- 
pressing of  Corn  and  Sorghum— Practical  Suggestions— Ex- 
pression of  the  Juice— Arrangement  of  Tanks— Evaporating 
Apparatus— Forms  of  Finishing  Pan— Stirring  Instrument 
— The  Cooler — Crystallizing  Boxes — Adaptation  of  Existing 
Machinery  —  Future  Requirements  —  Importance  of  the 
ChemicarTreatment. 

CHAPTER  IX—  Crystallization, 55 

Obstacles  to  Crystallization— Nature  of  the  Difficulties  to 
be  Overcome— Inapplicability  of  Old  Processes— General 
Features  of  New  Process — Means  Employed — Chemical  Re- 
actions—Process of  Manufacture— Use  of  the  Heating  Tanks 
—First  Stage  of  Process— Second  Stage— Acti  in  of  "Solution 
A  B"— Characteristics  of  Purified  Juice— Finishing. 


CONTENTS.  7 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  X — Drainage  of  the  Sugar,  60 

Crystallization  of  Maize  Sugar— Treatment  of  Drainage 
Syrups — Crystallization  of  Sorghum  Sugar — Special  Treat- 
ment—Drainage  by  Pressure— Drainage  Sacks— Recrystalli- 
zation  of  Finc-Graincd  Sugar — Mode  of  Producing  either 
Coarse  or  Fine-Grained  Sugar  from  Sorghum. 

CHAPTER  XI — Sugar  Factories,  63 

System  of  Work — Advantages  of  Division  of  Labor — Point 
at  which  this  Process  may  be  Suspended— Ct  ntral  Factory 
System — Associated  Interests  of  the  Planter  and  Manufac- 
turer--Benefits  of  the  System— Plantation  System— How 
the  Small  Factories  may  be  made  Auxiliary  to  the  Central 
Works— Present  Wants  and  Opportunities— Utilization  of 
Existing  Machinery — Homo  Manufacture — Plan  of  a  Small 
Sugar  Factory — Explanation  of  the  Diagram — Arrangement 
of  Small  Works. 

CHAPTER  XI  [ — Utilization  of  Secondary  Products,     -        -        69 

Importance  of  the  Subject — Reworking  of  Scums  and 
Drainage  Syrups— Important  Rule— Value  of  Gr  eu  Cobs- 
Test  to  be  Made  of  Preserving  Them  for  Winter  Forage  by 
"  Ensilage  " — Unfinished  Experiments. 

APPENDIX  A — Comparison  of  Sugar  Plants,  71 

APPENDIX  B — Table  of  Maize  Juices,          -        -        -       -  75 

APPENDIX  C — Secondary  Pioducts,      -----  81 

APPENDIX  D, ..--88 

APPENDIX  ~E—The  Copper  Test, 89 

TABLES,          --.- 90 

SYNOPSIS  OF  THE  PROCESS,         ------  101 


PREFACE. 


The  design  of  this  work  is  plainly  and  briefly  set  forth  in  its  title. 
The  claims  now  made,  a  review  of  the  facts  upon  which  they  are 
bused,  and  some  suggestions  for  the  use  of  those  who  might  desire 
to  turn  them  to  account,  form  the  subject  of  a  paper  now  about 
being  published  in  the  Annual  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Ag- 
riculture of  the  United  States.  But  the  necessity  now  existing  for 
the  immediate  publication  of  a  much  fuller  and  more  systematic 
treatise  than  the  article  above  referred  to,  adapted  not  only  to 
answer  such  reasonable  inquiries  as  are  constantly  being  made,  but 
also  to  serve  as  a  complete  manual  for  practical  use,  has  led  to  the 
preparation  of  this  volume. 

The  subject  itself  has  a  claim  upon  the  attention  of  the  American 
people  of  no  ordinary  kind.  The  effect  of  the  practical  adoption 
of  the  truths  herein  set  forth  will  be  to  revolutionize  sugar  produc- 
tion in  this  country,  to  enhance  almost  beyond  estimate  the  value 
of  Indian  corn  and  sorghum,  to  carry  the  line  of  available  sugar- 
producing  territory  from  the  Gulf  coast  to  the  49th  parallel,  to  save 
to  the  country  the  immense  sum  of  about  one  hundred  millions  of 
dollars  now  annually  expended  for  foreign  sugars,  and  to  assist,  by 
the  rise  of  a  new  and  permanent  industry,  in  the  solution  of  a 
much  vexed  question,  by  giving  remunerative  labor  on  the  corn 
lands  of  the  West  to  a  great  number  of  our  population  now  unem- 
ployed. 

The  alleged  identity  in  all  important  particulars  of  crude  saccha- 
rine juices,  to  which  the  author  as  well  as  others  once  gave  credence, 
has  proved  to  be  an  error.  Whatever  is  valuable  in  the  new  pro- 
cess of  making  sugar  from  sorghum  and  maize,  is  the  direct  result 
of  the  removal  of  this  old  stumbling-block  out  of  the  way. 

F.  L.  STEWART, 

Murrysville, 
Westmoreland  Co., 

Penn. 


Sugar  made  from  Maize  and  Sorghum. 


I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

Complex  Nature  of  Saccharine  Juices— Destructive  Properties  of  Cane  Sugar 
—Classification  of  Saccharine  Plants— Maize  and  Sorghum  as  Sugar  Plants 
—Peculiarities  of  their  Juices— Errors  Corrected— Inapplicability  of  Old  Pro- 
cesses to  Extraction  of  Sugar  from  Them— Necessity  of  New  Modes  of  Treat- 
ment—Their  Product— Cane  Sugar— Spurious  Corn  Sugar— Sources  of  Sugar 
Production  within  the  United  States  heretofore  —Inadequacy  of  Them— 
The  Sugar  Cane  in  Louisiana— Causes  of  Deterioration. 

The  art  of  extracting  sugar  from  the  crude  vegetable  juices  in 
which  it  exists  must  always  vary  in  its  processes  and  appliances 
with  the  nature  of  the  associated  substances  in  solution.  This  fact 
has  sometimes  been  lost  sight  of.  The  large  number,  and  often 
comparatively  large  amount  of  dissolved  substances  other  than 
sugar  found  accompanying  it,  the  instability  of  most  of  these  sub- 
stances and  their  complex  chemical  relations,  together  with  a  va- 
riety of  other  circumstances  influencing  the  result,  known  only  to 
the  experienced  manufacturer  or  chemist,  combine  to  make  what 
at  first  sight  seems  a  matter  of  simple  evaporation  and  crystal- 
lization a  very  intricate  chemical  problem. 

For  the  reason  that  sugar  is  solely  a  product  of  nature,  and  that 
neither  any  "  fortuitous  concourse  of  atoms,"  nor  any  means  within 
human  reach,  operating  through  any  of  the  known  laws  of  matter, 
have  ever  been  able  to  produce  it,  the  highest  skill  finds  enough  to 
do  to  separate  it,  unimpaired,  from  the  combinations  in  which  it  is 
found.  True  sugar  is  radically  distinct  from  all  other  saccharine 
substances  as  far  as  known  in  this  particular.  It  is  formed  only 
in  the  living  plant.  Other  kindred  substances  of  a  lower  type, 


10  INTRODUCTION. 

such  as  glucose  and  levulose,  (grape  and  fruit  sugar,)  may  easily  l>3 
fabricated  by  familiar  synthetic  processes  ;  but  this  is  formed  only 
through  the  mysterious  operation  of  the  vital  principle  upon  lower 
grades  of  pre-existing  matter  in  the  same  series.  Its  final  separa- 
tion in  the  pure  crystalline  form,  from  the  association  in  which  it 
is  thus  by  nature  found,  is  the  result  which  every  successive  step 
in  the  treatment  of  raw  material  should  contribute  to  secure.  It 
is  never  found  naturally  in  the  pure  state. 

Hitherto  the  sugar  supply  of  the  world  has  been  derived  almost 
exclusively  from  two  sources  :  the  sugar  cane,  in  the  regions  within 
the  tropics,  and  the  beet,  within  the  temperate  zone  of  Europe. 

The  sweet  juices  of  most  vegetables  and  nearly  all  fruits  are  due 
to  the  presence  of  saccharine  substances  entirely  different  in  chem- 
ical properties,  constitution  and  use  from  true  sugar,  and  these 
should  never  be  confounded  with  it. 

Plants  containing  a  sweet  juice  maybe  divided,  generally,  ac- 
cording to  their  composition,  into  three  classes,  viz  : 

1.  Those  like  the  sugar  cane  and  the  beet,  which,  when  their 
juices  are  mature,  contain,  in  association  with  other  substances, 
true,  crystallizable  sugar  only. 

2.  Those,  like  most  fruits,  such  as  the  apple  and  the  grape,  which, 
whatever  their  composition  otherwise,  contain  no  true  sugar,  but 
only  glucose,  levulose,  &c. 

3.  To  these  must  no\vb3  added  a  third  class,  heretofore  not  gen- 
erally recognized  as  distinct,  which  contain  in  their  best  condition 
both  true  sugar  and  glucose,  but  the  latter  uniformly  in  compara- 
tively small  quantity. 

The  representatives  of  this  class  are  maize  and  sorghum. 

I  propose  to  show  in  the  following  pages  that  the  last-mentioned 
plants  have  a  legitimate  claim  to  be  ranked  with  the  best  sugar- 
producing  species  now  known.  In  proof  of  this,  and  in  the  face 
of  natural  obstacles  to  a  practical  realization  hitherto  of  the  value 
of  these  plants  in  this  particular,  which  none  so  well  know  the 
magnitude  of  as  those  who  have  f wily  encountered  them,  it  can 
now  be  shown  that  the  current  opinion  as  to  the  uncrystallizable 
character  of  the  sugar  of  the  juices  of  these  plants  is  not  founded 
on  fact. 

\ 


MAIZE    AND   SORGHUM    AS   SUGAR  PLANTS.  11 

This  opinion  is  based  upon'  the  very  unsafe  ground  that,  because 
sugar  has  not  been  practically  obtained  from  these  sources  hith- 
erto, they  do  not  contain  it ;  for  it  can  now  be  clearly  shown  that 
chemical  analysis  invariably  reveals  the  fact  that  not  only  are  the 
juices  of  maize  and  sorghum,  grown  in  the  United  States,  as 
rich,  if  not  richer,  in  sugars,  than  any  other  plants  that  can  be 
grown  in  temperate  latitudes,  but  that,  when  in  the  proper  condi- 
tion, nine-tenths  of  their  saccharine  matter  is  crystallizable  sugar 
of  the  true  cane  type. 

I  am  certain  that  there  should  now  be  no  controversy  on  this 
point. 

Taking  this  for  granted  at  present,  it  is  plain  that  the  obstacles 
to  the  extraction  of  the  sugar  from  these  plants  does  not  consist  in 
any  deficiency  of  true  sugar  itself,  because  they  contain  it  in  larger 
quantity  than  any  other  sugar-producing  plants  except  the  cane  of 
the  tropics ;  nor  does  it  consist  in  the  presence  in  them  of  a  larger 
proportion  of  impurities  or  substances  other  than  sugar,  because 
they  are  less  by  at  least  one-half  in  either  of  them  than  in  beet. 
The.  impediments  to  crystallization,  therefore,  must  be  in  some 
peculiarity  apparently  of  the  composition  of  these  juices  them- 
selves, and  this  is  now  found  to  be  the  fact. 

Accordingly,  I  find,  as  might  have  been  anticipated,  that  neither 
the  processes  adapted  to  the  extraction  of  sugar  from  the  southern 
cane,  nor  the  much  more  elaborate  methods  of  the  beet-sugar  manu- 
facturers in  Europe,  are  appropriate  for  the  successful  extraction  of 
sugar  from  these  plants,  which  in  this  case  involves  entirely  new 
condition?,  and  requires  radical  changes  in  the  modes  of  chemical 
treatment. 

The  obstacles  to  the  crystallization  of  the  sugar  of  this  class  of 
saccharine  juices  have  now  been  finally  overcome  by  the  use  of  the 
means  which  it  is  the  object  of  this  publication  in  the  plainest  man- 
ner to  describe.  A  new  field  of  manufacture,  practically  almost 
limitless  in  its  range,  is  thus  opened  up.  The  class  of  plants  from 
which  these  new  sugars  will  be  produced  are  annuals  of  a  com- 
paratively short  period,  of  wonderfully  luxuriant  growth,  simple 
in  all  their  requirements  as  to  soil  and  culture,  and  capable  of 
being  grown  over  a  geographical  area  beyond  all  comparison 


12  INTRODUCTION. 

greater  than  that  of  the  southern  cane  and  the  beet  combined,  not 
only  within  the  United  States  but  throughout  the  world. 

The  force  of  these  natural  advantages  will  be  found  to  be  greatly 
augmented  by  the  circumstance  that  the  departures  from  the  old 
processes  of  manufacture  now  necessary  to  be  adopted  are  all  in 
the  direction  of  greater  simplicity,  cheapness,  and  ease  of  manage- 
ment in  accomplishing  the  result — the  reverse  of  what  the  more 
complex  nature  of  these  juices  would  seem  to  indicate. 

It  will  be  found,  for  example,  that  the  cost  of  the  manufacture 
of  corn  or  sorghum  sugar  in  this  country  can  easily  be  reduced  to 
less  than  one-half  the  cost  of  the  beet-sugar  manufacture  in  Eu- 
rope— the  carbonatation  process  and  the  use  of  animal  charcoal 
being  entirely  dispensed  with,  and  the  use  of  the  vacuum-pan 
made  unnecessary. 

It  is  important  in  this  connection  that  there  should  be  no  misap- 
prehension as  to  the  nature  and  quality  of  the  sugars  now  furnished 
from  these  plants. 

Although  chemistry  recognizes  a  distinct  class  of  substances  to 
which  the  general  name  of  sugar  is  given,  there  is  but  one  body  in 
nature,  recognized  in  the  commercial  world,  to  which  the  appella- 
tion of  crystallized  sugar  can  properly  and  honestly  be  applied. 
It  is  exclusively  a  natural  product.  It  must  pre-exist  in  the  living 
plant.  It  cannot  be  counterfeited  or  made.  In  its  association  with 
other  bodies  in  the  original  sources  from  which  it  is  obtained,  its 
presence  is  oftentimes  indicated  only  by  the  nicest  chemical  tests. 
To  break  the  alliance  subsisting  bet  ween  it  and  the  substances  often 
in  great  number  found  along  with  it,  and  to  separate  the  sugar 
without  destroying  it,  is,  in  many  cases,  one  of  the  most  difficult 
problems  in  organic  chemistry.  And  it  becomes  a  new  problem, 
involving  new  modes  of  treatment,  every  time  that  a  crude  saccha- 
rine substance  is  brought  under  examination  of  a  different  organi- 
zation from  others,  which  are  well  understood.  Sugar,  as  it  exists 
in  the  tropical  cane,  in  the  maple  of  our  forests,  in  the  beet,  in 
sorghum,  and  in  maize,  is,  in  its  purified  form,  precisely  the  same 
substance.  In  saccharine  value  no  other  substance  can  at  all  com- 
pare with  it.  No  other  possesses  the  same  crystalline  form,  the 
sweetening  power,  or  the  same  chemical  constitution  and  adap- 
tation to  the  uses  of  man  as  an  article  of  food. 


DECLINE   IN    LOUISIANA.  13 

This  distinction  is  necessary  to  be  made  here  at  the  outset,  be- 
cause Indian  corn  has  recently  obtained  some  celebrity  as  a  sugar 
plant  in  its  capacity  to  furnish  from  the  starch  of  its  grain,  by  a 
well-known  transformation,  the  miserable  "STARCH  SUGAR,"  to 
which  by  an  amazing  stretch  of  courtesy  the  name  of  "Corn  Sugar" 
has  been  applied.  The  misnomer  should  deceive  no  one.  This 
spurious  sugar  is  manufactured  largely  for  the  uses  of  the  brewer 
and  distiller,  and  for  the  fabrication  with  other  substances  of  cheap 
table  syrups ;  but,  in  its  isolated  form,  it  lacks  all  the  essential 
qualities  of  true  sugar  except  sweetness,  and  that  in  so  much 
lower  degree  as  to  reduce  its  commercial  value  to  about  one-third 
that  of  common  sugar,  and  incapacitate  it  from  serving  any  of  its 
ordinary  uses. 

The  natural  sources  within  the  territory  of  the  United  States 
which  have  heretofore  contributed  to  the  supply  of  sugar  have 
always  been  extremely  limited,  but  never  so  much  so  as  at  present. 
The  product  of  the  maple  tree  of  our  forests  as  compared  with  the 
demand  is  utterly  insignificant,  and  although  it  is  possible  that 
production  from  the  tropical  cane  in  Louisiana  in  certain  districts 
and  at  a  few  other  favorable  points  may  be  extended  in  the  future 
so  as  to  utilize  to  the  utmost  all  available  resources  and  restore  it 
to  a  condition  of  comparative  prosperity,  still  it  must  be  admitted 
upon  all  hands  that  we  cannot  in  coming  years  reasonably  look  to 
that  source  to  supply  more  than  a  *mall  fraction  of  the  sugar  an- 
nually consumed  in  the  United  States. 

The  decline  of  this  industry  of  the  South  during  the  decade  pre- 
ceding the  late  civil  war  was  due  to  natural  causes  affecting  the 
growth  and  development  of  the  sugar  cane  itself.  After  years  of 
careful  experiment  it  became  plainly  evident  that  the  transplanta- 
tion of  an  exclusively  tropical  plant  into  a  narrow  fringe  of  extra- 
tropical  territory  along  our  gulf  coast,  where  alone  the  climate 
will  permit  it  to  grow  at  all,  was  in  violation  of  a  law  of  the  life 
of  the  plant,  the  ultimate  result  of  which  was  disease  and  decay. 

It  was  of  no  permanent  avail  that  Government  aid  was  invoked, 
and  freely  sfiven,  to  encourage  production.  Cuttings  of  new  and 
undegenerated  varieties  were  introduced  from  distant  quarters  of 


14  INTRODUCTION. 

the  globe,  protective  duties  upon  foreign  sugars  were  imposed,  and 
nothing  was  left  undone  to  foster  an  industry  which,  where  it  was 
temporarily  successful,  so  abundantly  rewarded  capital  and  skill. 

Never  was  the  ingenuity  of  the  American  mind  more  conspicu- 
ously displayed  or  more  enthusiastically  bestowed  than  in  the 
attempt  to  supplement  by  human  intervention  and  assiduity  the  lack 
of  the  needed  qualities  in  the  sun  and  air  of  Louisiana. 

Apparatus  of  rare  workmanship  and  enormous  cost  was  em- 
ployed in  the  manufacture  of  the  sugar,  and  not  without  reward, 
for,  in  quality,  the  sugar  of  New  Orleans  soon  enjoyed  a  marked 
pre-eminence ;  but  nothing  could  countervail  a  climatic  defect,  by 
which  the  frost  of  a  single  night  would  wither  the  hopes  of  the 
planter  for  a  whole  season,  or  arrest  the  deterioration  of  his  best 
imported  canes. 

Contrary  to  a  widespread  belief,  the  civil  war  was  not  the 
immediate  cause  of  the  prostration  of  this  industry,  although  it 
precipitated  it;  and  now,  notwithstanding  so  many  years  have 
elapsed  since  its  close,  during  which  the  stimulus  of  high  prices 
has  been  constant,  the  business  has  not  revived,  and  every  year  the 
disparity  between  the  demand  and  the  supply  from  this  source  has 
been  becoming  greater. 

Nature  has  plainly  set  barriers  to  the  gaographical  range  of  the 
plant,  beyond  which  it  cannnot  be  grown  with  success.  It  is  only 
within  the  tropics  that  the  regions  are  found  from  which  the  mar- 
kets of  the  world  are  now  supplied  from  this  cane,  or  can  be 
expected  to  be  with  any  regularity  in  the  future.  There  is  no 
apparent  reason,  however,  why  the  former  yield  of  sugar  from  the 
Louisiana  cane  may  not  be  again  equaled  or  even  increased  within 
certain  climatic  limits.  Damage  by  frost  bsfore  or  during  the  roll- 
ing season  has  become  so  frequent  of  late  as  often  to  leave  the 
crop  entirely  worthless  for  the  extraction  of  sugar  by  the  means 
now  used.  The  partial  fermentation  which  ensues  converts  a  por- 
tion of  the  sugar  into  the  uncrystallizable  form,  which  prevents 
the  crystallization  of  the  remainder.  If,  as  some  experiments 
show,  the  loss  in  this  way  is  not  more  than  2  or  3  per  cent., 
analogy  would  lead  to  the  inference  that  the  same  process  which 
now  extracts  the  sugar  of  maize  and  sorghum,  in  the  presence  of 


ORIGIN    AND    HISTORY    OF    MAIZE.  15 

a  like  amount  of  uncrystallizable  sugar,  would  prove  a  remedy  for 
the  effects  of  such  a  disaster,  if  seasonably  applied.  Some  tests  to 
be  made  this  season  will  determine  this  point. 


II. 

MAIZE. 

Origin  and  Early  History  of  Maize— Evidences  of  its  Existence  in  America 
Irom  Pre-historic  Times— Uses  of  the  Immature  Plant  by  the  North  Ameri- 
can Indians— Its  Saccharine  Value  Recognized— Maize  Among  the  Aztecs- 
Mexican  Sugar— More  Recent  Experiments  in  the  United  States— Their  Char- 
acter— Blot's  Analysis  in  France — Erroneous  Theories — Unsatisfactory  Re- 
sults— Obstacles  to  Success  Defined  and  Causes  of  Failure. — New  Researches 
Made  Necessary. 

The  discovery  of  maize,  regarded  as  to  its  influence  upon  the 
welfare  of  the  human  race,  was  the  most  important  event  directly 
following  the  discovery  of  the  New  World.  The  uses  of  Indian 
corn  are  found  to  be  so  numerous,  its  products  are  so  multiform, 
its  productiveness  and  vigor  are  so  wonderful  in  this  its  original 
home,  as  to  give  it  deservedly  the  very  foremost  rank  among  agri- 
cultural plants.  The  peculiar  summer  climate  of  North  America 
— almost  tropical  in  its  temperature — seems  especially  adapted  to 
the  growth  and  health  of  the  plant. 

Nothing  illustrates  more  forcibly  the  inadequacy  of  the  means 
used  two  or  three  hundred  years  ago  to  fix  and  transmit  exact 
knowledge  than  the  uncertainty  which  existed  in  the  minds  of  the 
early  botanists  as  to  the  origin  of  Indian  corn.  It  was  not  until 
De  Candolle  within  the  last  half  century  had  authoritatively  estab- 
lished its  birthplace  in  the  New  World  that  the  truth  was  at  last 
a  ck  n  o  wle  dge  d . 

The  American  origin  of  maize,  independent  of  the  direct  testi- 
mony of  the  early  discoverers  to  the  fact,  is  proved  by  the  absence 
of  any  description  of  the  plant  by  the  old  writers  as  existing  any- 
where in  the  Old  World  previous  to  the  conquest  of  Mexico. 


16  MAIZE. 

Cortez  brought  back  with  him  on  his  first  return  to  the  court  of 
Charles  V  some  ears  of  Indian  corn.  The  plant  had  acquired  a 
great  variety  of  uses  among  the  Aztecs  when  the  Spaniards  first 
entered  their  country,  and  it  \vas  assigned  a  prominent  place  in 
their  sacred  calendar.  The  ancient  Peruvians  left  artistic  repre- 
sentations of  the  plant  executed  with  exquisite  fidelity  in  gold ; 
and  it  was  cultivated  in  the  gardens  of  the  Incas.  An  ear  of  corn 
was  found  in  the  envelope  of  a  mummy  from  Peru,  formerly  exhib- 
ited in  Peale's  museum,  which  must  have  been  deposited  where  it 
was  found  before  the  time  of  Pizarro. 

Its  existence  in  North  America  at  the  earliest  period  of  which  wo 
have  any  traces  is  no  less  unmistakable.  Among  the  Iroquois,  the 
names  of  all  the  summer  months  were  derived  from  the  different 
phases  characteristic  of  the  growing  maize  throughout  the  season. 
The  grain  (yellow,  blue,  and  red)  was  found  everywhere  by  the  first 
explorers  along  the  whole  eastern  coast.  Pointing  to  a  still  ear- 
lier date  are  the  charred  remains  of  corn-ears  found  imbedded  in 
the  mounds  of  the  West,  an  example  of  which  exists  in  specimen  No. 
21,044  among  the  Archaeological  Collections  of  the  Smithsonian  In- 
stitution in  Washington,  recently  disinterred  from  a  mound  in  Utah. 

But  still  more  conclusive  as  to  the  extensive  cultivation  of  the 
plant  here  at  a  period  far  antedating  all  European  knowledge  of 
it,  was  the  discovery  made  many  years  ago  of  a  remarkable  deposit 
of  charred  Indian  corn  beneath  the  alluvion  of  the  Ohio  Valley,  at 
a  point  about  twenty  miles  below  Wheeling.  Dr.  Johnson,  of 
Louisville,  describing  it,  says  :  4i  The  stratum  is  generally  eight  to 
ten  inches  thick  and  five  to  six  feet  below  the  surface,  and  con- 
tains nothing  but  corn  grains  closely  impacted  together  with  black 
dust."  He  expresses  the  opinion  that  "if  all  the  corn  raised  in 
the  Ohio  Valley  and  all  its  tributaries  above  this  point  were  col- 
lected together,  it  would  not  amount  to  one-tenth  of  this  deposi- 
tion." (Atwoo&s  Southern  Almanac,  !8ol-'2,  p.  30.) 

The  superiority  of  American  corn  passes  unchallenged  in  the 
great  grain  marts  of  the  world,  and  but  for  the  fact  that  the  means 
of  transportation  cannot  keep  pace  with  those  of  production,  there 
would  scarcely  be  a  limit  to  the  profitable  growing  of  the  grain  for 
foreign  export. 


SMITH'S  ACCOUNT  OF  MAIZE.  1.7 

But  it  is  only  of  very  late  years  that  any  practical  advantage  has 
been  taken  of  the  fact  that  the  immature  grain,  especially  of  some 
varieties  of  sweet  corn,  when  properly  cured  and  dried,  possesses 
qualities  singularly  different  from  those  of  the  grain  when  ripe, 
and  eminently  befitting  it  for  becoming  a  highly  valuable  and  ac- 
ceptable article  of  food  all  over  the  world.  This  use  of  it  is  yet  in  its 
infancy ;  but  this  desiccated  corn  will  evidently  soon  be  made  the 
basis  of  a  greater  variety  of  light,  nutritious  and  palatable  food 
preparations  than  the  ripened  grain  is  capable  of.  The  ancient  in- 
habitants of  this  country  used  it  very  generally  in  this  way — the 
Aztecs  and  the  southern  nations  particularly  being  skilled  in  var- 
ious methods  of  utilizing  the  plant  of  which  we  are  now  in  igno- 
rance. 

But  in  nothing  is  the  defectiveness  of  our  knowledge  as  to  its 
economy  and  uses  so  palpably  evinced  as  in  our  lack  of  apprecia- 
tion of  its  saccharine  value.  This  quality  of  the  juice  of  the  green 
plant  was  early  noticed.  Captain  John  Smith,  in  a  narrative  which 
he  has  left  of  his  visit  to  Virginia  nearly  three  centuries  ago,  gives 
an  exceedingly  interesting  description  of  the  natural  productions 
of  the  country  at  that  day,  and  especially  of  Indian  corn,  and  re- 
marks :  "The  stalke  being  yet  greene  hath  a  sweet  mice  in  it, 
somewhat  like  a  sugar  cane,  which  is  the  cause  that  when  they 
gather  their  corne  greene  they  sucke  the  stalkes ;  for  as  we  gather 
greene  pease,  so  do  they  their  corne,  being  greene,  which  excelleth 
their  olde."* 

It  is  not  probable  that  these  rude  Virginia  savages,  living,  as 
Smith  expresses  it,  "from  hand  to  mouth,"  ever  advanced  beyo-nd 
the  primitive  practice  of  peeling  and  chewing  the  stems  to  extract 
their  sweets,  just  as  all  other  savages  have  done  from  time  imme- 
morial in  places  where  the  sugar  cane  abounds ;  but  the  remarka- 
ble people  who  inhabited  the  Mexican  plateau,  and  who  were  as 
far  in  advance  of  thoir  northern  neighbors  in  the  useful  arts  of  life 
as  they  were  in  civil  affairs  and  military  skill,  if  we  may  believe 
the  old  historians,  were  versed  not  only  in  the  preparation  of  a 

*  True  Travels,  Adventures  and  Observations  of  Captaine  lohn  Smith.  Ac- 
count of  6th  Voyage,  A.  D.  1606.  London  ed.,  A.  D.  1629. 


18  MAIZE. 

multitude  of  articles  of  food  produced  from  both  the  ripe  and  the 
unripe  corn,  but  also  had  acquired  the  art  of  extracting  a  species 
of  sugar  from  the  juice  of  the  living  stems. 

It  was  this  three-fold  use  of  the  plant,  together  with  its  wonder- 
ful productiveness,  which  excited  the  astonishment  of  the  early 
discoverers,  and  which  led  the  native  races  themselves  everywhere 
throughout  the  continent  from  Hudson's  Bay  to  Patagonia  to'  ven- 
erate it  as  the  crowning  gift  of  the  Great  Spirit. 

It  is  certain  that  in  Mexico  some  sugar  had  been  made  from  it  at 
the  time  of  the  landing  of  Cortez,  but  the  old  chroniclers  of  the 
Conquest  drew  their  pictures  with  a  free  hand,  and  it  is  extremely 
improbable  that,  as  a  regular  production,  it  had  attained  to  any 
very  considerable  importance.  This  appears  from  several  circum- 
stances, among  which  is  the  fact  that  maize  sugar  had  no  such 
prominent  place,  at  least,  in  the  vast  enumeration  of  articles  stat- 
edly provided  for  the  cuisine  of  the  Aztec  monarchs,  which  it  cer- 
tainly would  have  had  if  it  had  ranked  as  a  staple  of  the  country. 

The  nature  of  the  juice  of  maize  is  such  that  it  yields  with  com- 
parative facility  by  ordinary  treatment  a  small  proportion — some 
2  or  3  per  cent. — of  its  sugar.  We  may,  therefore,  fairly  infer 
that,  as  in  the  case  of  some  experiments  reported  to  have  been 
made  in  this  country,  a  short  time  before  the  introduction  of  the 
Chinese  cane,  sugar  was  not  obtained  from  it  in  remunerative 
quantity  ;  and  there  is  no  evidence  to  show  that  sugar-making,  as 
it  existed  among  the  Aztecs,  can  ever  be  claimed  as  one  of  the 
" lost  arts."* 

Yet  these  statements  are  not  merely  mythical,  and  in  their  rela- 
tion to  other  facts  have  certainly  some  practical  significance. 

At  this  time,  with  a  peculiar  force,  the  inquiry  comes  up  for 
answer  :  Has  Indian  corn  any  definite,  practical  value  as  a  sugar- 
producing  plant? 

*Prescott  extols  the  noble  growth  and  saccharine  qualities  of  maize  in 
those  equinoctial  regions,  and  refers  to  sugar  made  from  it.  (Conrfuest  «/ 
Mexico,  rev.  ed.,  12mo,  1874,  vol.  1,  p.  139.) 

Carta  del  Lie  Zuazo,  M.  S. ;  Oviedo  Hist.  Natural  de  las,Indias,'cap.  4, 
Ap.  Barcia,  torn  1. 

Hernandez,  Hist.  Plant.,  lib.  6,  cap.  44,  45  are  the  authorities  which  he 
recites. 


EXPERIMENTS   OF   PALLAS.  19 

No  sufficient  reply  has  ever  been  made  to  this  question. 

It  has  long  been  known  that  the  negroes  in  some  of  our  Southern 
States  have  occasionally  produced  a  very  harsh-flavored,  treacle- 
like  syrup  from  the  stems  of  green  corn  by  cutting  them  in  small 
pieces,  boiling  them  and  expressing  and  evaporating  the  juice. 

The  only  experiments  ever  made  in  the  United  States  to  extract 
sugar  from  corn,  of  which  there  is  any  record,  were  made  by  a  few 
persons — mostly  farmers — in  different  parts  of  the  country,  prin- 
cipally during  the  years  1842  and  1843,  an  account  of  which  ap- 
pears in  the  reports  of  Hon.  Henry  L.  Ellsworth,  Commissioner  of 
Patents  at  that  time. 

These  experiments,  unfortunately,  were  of  such  a  desultory  char- 
acter as  to  determine  nothing  expert  except  the  inappropriateness 
of  the  means  used  to  secure  the  desired  end.  No  trustworthy  ex- 
amination of  the  juice  was  made  to  determine  its  nature  ;  and,  as 
might  have  been  anticipated,  the  mode  of  treatment  followed  was 
based  upon  errors  which  a  little  rigid  investigation  would  have  cor- 
rected. 

It  maybe  of  use  to  point  out  what  some  of  these  were,  just  here, 
to  prevent  the  possible  revival  of  them. 

1.  Reasoning  from  a  false  analogy,  it  was  inferred  that  in  order 
to  secure  the  presence  of  the  largest  amount  of  sugar  in  the  juice 
it  was  necessary  that  the  ear  should  not  be  allowed  to  form.  The 
experiments  in  this  country  evidently  followed  in  the  path  of  some 
undertaken  by  M.  Pallas  in  France  and  Algiers  in  the  year  1839. 
By  him  the  plausible  theory  was  broached  that  the  grain  is  nour- 
ished at  the  expense  of  the  sugar  in  the  stem,  and,  as  a  conse- 
quence, that  the  ears  should  be  removed  as  fast  as  they  form. 

Against  this  was  the  unanswerable  testimony  of  Biot,  the  father 
of  the  optical  method  of  analyzing  saccharine  juices,  and  the  only 
person  who  seems  to  have  made  a  competent  chemical  test  of  the 
juice  of  maize,  who  found  13  per  cent,  of  sugar  in  the  well- 
developed  plant,  and  discovered  that  the  quantity  of  sugar  in  it 
was  diminished,  instead  of  increased,  by  the  treatment  recom- 
mended by  Pallas ;  and  further,  that  the  pulling  off  of  the  ear 
wounds  the  growing  stem,  greatly  impairing  its  health  and  pro- 
ductive power.  This  mutilation  of  the  plant  needed  to  be  con- 


20  MAIZE. 

stantly  repeated  to  contract  its  almost  ungovernable  tendency  to 
throw  out  fresh  ears  and  to  form  its  grain,  requiring  great  addi- 
tional labor  and  expense.  It  was  also  found  that,  as  a  further 
effect  of  this  treatment,  additional  substances  injurious  to  the 
sugar  were  formed,  as  well  as  an  actual  diminution  in  the  quantity 
of  the  sugar  itself. 

2.  Therefore,  as  a  means  of  obviating  these  evils,  the  sowing  of 
corn  broadcast  or  planting  so  thickly  as  to  prevent  entirely  the 
formation  of  the  ear,  was  strongly  recommended.     But  this  simply 
perpetuated  the  mischief  at  a  less  expense.    Slender  woody  stems 
and  an  impoverished  juice  were  the  unsatisfactory  results. 

3.  A  kindred  error  gained  currency  in  the  statement  that  the 
best  period  for  working  up  the  juice  is  soon  after  the  formation  of 
the  silk,  or  during  the  early  part  of  the  flowering  period.    As  the 
result  of  this,  some  of  the  experiments  were  made  entirely  value- 
less. 

4.  Another  mistake  was  the  supposed  applicability  to  corn-juice 
of  the  processes  employed  for  the  extraction  of  sugar  from  the 
Louisiana  cane.    Adherence  to  this  resulted  in  the  crystallization 
of  only  a  meager  proportion  of  the  contained  sugar  and  often 
none. 

Mi'.  M.  Adams,  of  Monroe  county,  New  York,  in  an  account 
furnished  by  him  to  the  New  York  State  Agricultural  Society,  of 
a  practical  attempt  to  produce  sugar  from  corn  by  the  method  em- 
ployed upon  the  southern  sugar-cane,  evinces  very  unusual  dis- 
crimination in  his  sense  of  the  difliculties  in  the  way,  and  concludes 
with  the  statement  that  to  secure  success  there  will  be  needed — 

1.  Something  more  effectual  than  lime  water  for  classification. 

2.  Some  means  to  make  the  crystallization  of  the  sugar  more 
sure  and  perfect. 

3.  A  definite  point  of  concentration  for  the  finished  syrup. 

4.  A  more  perfect  means  of  drainage  for  the  sugar. 

5.  The  means  of  removing  the  harsh,  natural  flavor  of  the  plant. 
In  consequence  of   these  difliculties,  and  the  absence  of  any 

means  then  discovered  of  obviating  them,  the  experiments  were 
discontinued  ;  and  the  subject  seems  to  have  attracted  no  further 
attention. 


CHEMICAL   PECULIARITIES.  21 

A  casual  observation,  made  some  years  ago,  very  strongly  im- 
£cessed  me  with  a  belief  that  naturally  the  corn-plant  possesses, 
at  a  certain  period,  a  far  higher  saccharine  value  than  has  been 
conceded  to  it  generally,  but  time  and  opportunity  were  wanting 
to  give  the  matter  proper  attention. 

Believing  it  to  merit  at  least  a  thorough  examination,  about  two 
years  ago,  however,  I  undertook  some  researches  which  have  been 
conducted  with  patience  and  care  up  to  the  present  time.  And 
sufficient  results  have  now  been  reached  to  furnish  a  decided  and 
intelligent  answer  as  to  the  practical  value  of  Indian  corn  for  sugar 
production. 


HI. 
.  BESULT    OF  INVESTIGATION. 

Similarity  in  Chemical  Constitution  of  the  Juice  of  Maize  and  Sorghum — Im- 
portant Discoveries — New  Process  Devised  Which  is  Applicable  to  Both 
Plants— Significance  of  These  Facts — Present  Capacity  of  the  United  States 
for  Sugar  Production  from  these  Sources— Adaptation  to  Present  Wants- 
Why  Their  Value  Was  Not  Heretofore  Recognized. 

In  the  course  of  these  investigations  it  was  very  soon  discovered 
that  the  juice  of  maize,  in  certain  important  particulars,  bears  a 
strong  resemblance  to  that  of  another  notable  plant  now  domesti- 
cated in  this  country,  the  value  of  which  has  been  much  debated 
and  the  peculiarities  of  which  have  hitherto  been  but  very  imper- 
fectly understood — the  Chinese  sugar  millet  or  sorghum.  Although 
these  plants  are  strongly  contrasted  in  some  respects,  it  was  dis- 
covered that  they  are  so  intimately  related  in  chemical  constitution 
as  to  entitle  them  not  only  to  be  ranked  together,  but  to  separate 
them  by  a  wide  interval  from  all  other  known  sugar  plants.  Natives 
of  opposite  hemispheres,  they  seem  to  have  been  brought  together 
here  to  fulfill  a  common  destiny. 

New  and  interesting  peculiarities  presented  themselves  in  the 
juices  of  these  plants,  foreshadowing  the  necessity  of  new  modes 
of  treatment,  and  it  was  at  once  perceived  that  but  little  practical 


22  RESULT    OF    INVESTIGATION. 

benefit  would  result  from  an  investigation,  however  wide  in  its  range 
or  important  in  its  disclosures,  unless  a  process  could  be  devised 
capable  of  the  extraction  of  the  sugar  as  uniformly  and  certainly 
as  it  is  now  obtained  by  the  special  processes  adapted  to  them, 
under  favorable  circumstances,  from  the  beet  and  the  southern 
cane. 

This  has  now  been  done. 

It  may  now  be  confidently  affirmed  that  not  only  maize  in  the 
green  state,  but  also  the  Chinese  and  African  canes,  are  beyond 
comparison  superior  to  any  other  plants  that  can  be  successfully 
grown  in  the  United  States  for  sugar  production,  either  as  to  cer- 
tainty of  results,  abundant  and  regular  yield,  ease  of  culture  or 
cheapness  and  facility  of  manufacture. 

It  is  difficult  to  express  in  few  words  the  importance  of  this  state- 
ment. It  will  readily  be  seen  that  the  natural  resources  of  the 
United  States  for  sugar  production  from  these  plants  are  practically 
limitless,  if  the  facts  here  assumed  prove  to  be  well  established. 

The  area  of  land  annually  planted  in  Indian  corn,  of  late  years, 
in  the  United  States  averages  45,000,000  acres,  as  shown  by  the 
reports  to  the  Department  of  Agriculture  at  Washington. 

It  is  demonstrated  that  if  the  average  sugar-producing  capacity 
of  either  sorghum  or  Indian  corn  per  acre  of  ground  be  taken  at 
one-third  less  than  the  experiments  of  the  past  year  show  it  to  be 
clearly  equal  to,  if  the  crop  be  grown  and  worked  up  with  ordinary 
skill  and  care,  it  would  require  less  than  the  one-fiftieth  part,  or 
one  acre  in  fifty  of  the  area  annually  devoted  to  the  Indian  corn 
crop  in'  the  United  States,  to  support  a  growth  for  sugar  of  either 
sorghum  or  maize  that  would  be  fully  adequate  to  supply  the  whole 
immense  home  demand  for  sugars — an  amount  now  equal  in  value 
annually  to  more  than  one  hundred  million  dollars. 

It  can  now  be  shown  that  we  have  the  resources  at  perfect  com- 
mand, if  rightly  utilized,  not  only  to  save  to  the  country  the  vast 
sum  which  we  are  paying  in  gold  every  year  for  foreign  sugar,  but 
that  within  a  very  few  years  hence  we  shall  be  able  to  send  to 
other  markets  a  surplus  of  our  crop,  which  will  take  equal  rank 
with  our  exports  of  flour  and  corn. 


EUROPEAN   PREJUDICE.  23 

To  accomplish  this  it  is  not  necessary  that  any  delay  should  be 
incurred,  or  that  any  preparation  should  be  made  involving  changes 
in  the  modes  of  agricultural  labor  to  which  our  people  have  become 
accustomed.  Nor  have  we  to  spend  time  in  experimental  culture 
of  plants  new  to  us,  or  to  our  climate  and  soil.  To  insure  success, 
we  need  not  invoke  the  presence  of  any  other  agencies  than  those 
which  the  Creator  has  so  lavishly  and  so  opportunely  laid  to  our  hand. 

The;  failure  to  recognize  the  true  value  of  these  plants  heretofore 
is  surprising,  but  it  is  not  at  all  unparalleled.  Some  of  the  grand- 
est industrial  movements  of  the  present  century  were  not  even 
foreshadowed  during  the  last.  It  is  no  disparagement  to  us  that 
through  the  swift  strides  which  our  country  has  taken  during  the 
past  fifty  years  in  some  fields  of  material  progress  we  have  over- 
stepped in  our  haste  some  mines  of  wealth  which  the  surface  con- 
cealed. The  truth  is,  that  the  corn  plant  of  America,  in  common 
with  many  others,  of  our  indigenous  productions  was  not  appreci- 
ated at  the  time  of  its  discovery.  It  was  recognized,  indeed,  as  an 
invaluable  acquisition  by  the  early  colonists,  and  perhaps  some 
proper  estimate  of  its  value  would  have  been  reached  in  the  old 
countries  if  the  dazzling  splendor  of  the  riches  brought  home  by 
the  Spanish  adventurers  had  not  blinded  the  eyes  of  all  Europe  to 
all  discoveries  but  those  of  silver  and  gold.  In  the  enthusiasm  of 
the  time  the  old  dream  of  the  alchemists  seemed  at  last  to  find  a 
realization  in  the  teeming  wealth  of  the  mines  of  the  New  World, 
and  men  were  well  content  to  accept  as  the  power  to  bring  it  forth 
the  steel  of  the  Conquistador  instead  of  the  philosopher's  stone. 

A  full  century  later  it  was  the  fashionable  hobby  of  European 
writers,  like  the  Abbe  Raynal,  to  assume  the  essential  inferiority 
of  the  productions  of  the  Western  Continent  as  compared  with 
those  of  the  East — a  mistake  which  the  Old  World  has  learned  to 
correct.  This  whimsey  imposed  itself  upon  the  fancy  of  no  less  a 
naturalist  than  Buffon.  It  repressed  investigation,  and  threw  into 
discredit  knowledge  which  a  later  age  turned  to  prolit  by  estimat- 
ing at  its  proper  worth  ;  and  it  must  be  remembered  that  it  was 
not  until  another  century  had  rolled  by  that  modern  chemistry  and 
the  systematic  interrogation  of  nature  took  its  rise. 


24  SOEGHUM. 

It  may  b3  said,  too,  that  our  forefathers  in  this  hemisphere  had 
no  immediate  wants  with  which  the  almost  unbounded  resources 
of  the  country  did  not  supply  without  calling  forth  much  technical 
skill ;  and  prior  to  the  year  1850  no  crisis  in  the  commercial  history 
of  the  nation  had  stimulated  research  toward  the  discovery  of  an 
adequate  native  source  of  suppty,  such  as  gave  life  to  the  beet- 
sugar  industry  in  France. 

Still,  it  is  not  a  little  remarkable  that  half  the  value  of  this  plant  in 
American  agriculture  has  for  these  three  hundred  years  been  prac- 
tically ignored.  Scarcely  less  so  is  the  fact  that  a  plant  so  rich  in 
sugar  as  sorghum  cane  is  now  shown  to  be,  should  have  been 
grown  for  almost  a  quarter  of  a  century  in  chis  country  and  in 
Asia  from  time  immemorial,  without  any  adequate  realization  of 
its  value. 


IV. 

SOKGHUM. 

Historical  Sketch  of  the  Plant— Period  of  its  Introduction  into  France  and 
the  United  States— Sorghum  of  China— South  African  Varieties— Specific 
Characters — Results  of  Acclimation — Prominent  Varieties  now  in  Cultiva- 
tion— Asiatic  and  African  Races — New  Varieties — Early  Amber  Cane — New 
Hybrid — New  Chinese  Varieties. 

The  unsatisfactory  experiments  made  with  Indian  corn,  as 
already  mentioned,  had  scarcely  passed  out  of  notice  when  the 
Chinese  cane  was  introduced  into  the  United  States.  In  the  year 
1851  the  French  consul-general  in  China  forwarded  to  Paris  from 
that  country  the  seeds  of  this  plant,  from  which  were  derived  the 
first  specimens  grown  in  France  and  in  this  country  of  the  variety 
known  as  the  Chinese  cane  or  Asiatic  black  sorghum. 

Very  successful  experiments  were  made  in  France  in  the  manu- 
facture of  alcohol  from  the  juice  of  the  plant,  by  M.  Vilmorin  and 
others,  previous  to  its  introduction  into  this  country,  and  attention 
was  immediately  attracted  to  it  as  a  source  for  the  production  of 


ASIATIC   AND   AFRICAN    VARIETIES.  25 

sugar  ;  but  the  same  difficulties  were  encountered  there  in  the  at- 
tempted accomplishment  of  that  object  that  were  afterwards  met 
with  in  the  United  States,  which  no  means  then  known  were  success- 
ful in  removing,  although  there,  as  here,  competent  scientific 
investigation  had  determined  the  existence  of  a  great  preponderance 
of  true  cane  sugar  in  the  properly  matured  juice. 

It  was  not  until  the  year  1835  that  the  plant  was  grown  in  the 
United  States.  The  seed  was  imported  from  France  during  the 
previous  year.  The  success  which  attended  the  first  attempts  to 
make  a  somewhat  palatable,  crude  table  syrup  from  it,  at  a 
very  small  cost,  awakened  immediate  attention,  and  when  public 
curiosity  was  at  its  height  Mr.  Leonard  Wray  arrived  in  this  coun- 
try, bringing  with  him  the  seed  of  more  than  a  dozen  varieties  of 
South  African  sorghum  or  imphee.*  These  he  found  growing  in 
the  country  of  the  Zulu  Gaffers,  near  Cape  Natal,  in  the  year 
1851,  or  simultaneously  with  introduction  of  the  Chinese  sorghum 
into  France.  The  first  samples  of  sugar  and  alcohol  produced  from 
these  African  canes  were  made  by  him  and  exhibited  at  the  Paris 
Exposition  of  1856. 

It  can  scarcely  now  be  doubted  that  the  Chinese  and  Caffrarian 
plants,  although  widely  separated  geographically  when  found,  are 
all  referable  to  a  single  original  species.  The  points  of  difference 
between  them  are  not  of  such  a  kind  or  importance  as  to  entitle 
them  to  be  regarded  as  spscifically  distinct.  On  the  supposition 
that  they  had  a  common  origin,  there  is  nothing  improbable  in  be- 
lieving that  through  Egypt  the  original  plant  may  readily  have 
found  its  way  to  the  extremity  of  either  of  the  connected  conti- 
nents, where  they  now  grow. 

Through  natural  influences  tending  to  the  destruction  of  the 
weaker  and  less  strongly  marked  varieties,  and  the  selection  of 
such  as  have  proved  to  be  the  most  valuable  for  their  saccharine 
qualities  in  this  climate,  the  original  number  of  Wray's  imphees 
has  now  been  reduced  to  less  than  one-half.  Those  now  remaining 
may  be  regarded  as  very  distinctly  marked  sub-varieties,  their  re- 
lationship to  each  other,  as  indicated  by  the  qualities  of  their  juice, 

*  See  note,  Appendix  D. 


26  SORGHUM. 

general  aspect  and  facility  of  hybridization  is  evidently  much 
more  intimate  than  to  the  Chinese  cane.  Accordingly,  while 
the  latter  may  now  be  readily  recognized  by  all  the  most 
prominent  characteristics  that  it  exhibited  when  first  grown  here, 
the  iinphee  group  which  we  retain  exhibits  varieties  which  have 
lost  some  of  their  peculiarities  and  acquired  others,  through  the  in- 
fluence of  climate  and  accidental  hybridization.  Only  the  most 
strongly  marked  sorts  survive,  and  they  possess  characters  which 
within  certain  limits  may  be  considered  permanent. 

These  are  now  the  so-called  "  Liber ian  "  cane,  the  most  robust 
and  strong-growing  sort  no\\  in  cultivation  and  the  latest  ripening, 
adapted  to  strong  soils,  and  characterized  by  its  short,  very  stout, 
close-jointed  stem,  its  small,  compact  panicle  and  diminutive 
reddish-j^ellow  seeds. 

White  imphee,  related  more  closely  than  any  other  to  the  Liber- 
ian,  as  indicated  by  its  general  habit,  mild-flavored  juice,  and  long 
period  of  growth,  but  of  smaller  size,  and  remarkable  especially  for 
its  heavy,  open-topped,  greenish-white  panicles  when  mature. 

Red  imphee,  the  very  opposite  of  both  the  above  in  general  aspect, 
tall,  long-jointed,  early  ripening,  and  noted  especially  for  its  highly 
acidulous  juice  and  its  beautiful,  wide-spreading,  rust-colored  pan- 
icle when  the  seeds  are  ripe. 

Black  imphee,  an  early,  not  very  productive  variety,  with  a  short 
stem  and  rather  small  and  close  panicle  of  a  brilliant  glossy  black 
color — that  of  the  glumes — which  entirely  inclose  the  seed.  The 
juice  of  this  sort  possesses  very  strongly  the  peculiar  flavor  gener- 
ally characterizing  more  or  less  all  the  imphee  race. 

Purple  imphee,  (otherwise  known  as  Oomseeana,  Otaheitan,  &c.) 
This  tall,  reed-like  cane,  with  its  trim,  spear-shaped  head,  is  the 
most  remarkable  of  its  race  in  being  in  some  of  its  modified  forms 
almost  the  only  sort  from  which  any  sugar  has  heretofore  been 
made.  There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  in  its  latest  and  most 
highly  improved  form  we  may  recognize  it  in  the  now  justly  cel- 
ebrated "Early  Amber"  cane  of  Minnesota. 

The  Chinese  cane  contrasts  strongly  with  almost  every  one  of 
the  imphees  in  certain  special  peculiarities,  but  these  differences 


NEW    CHINESE   VARIETIES.  27 

are  only  those  of  race,  and  are  far  outnumbered  and  outweighed 
by  striking  features  of  similarity. 

Xone  of  the  African,  canes  excel  this  variety  in  hardihood  or  rich- 
ness of  juice,  and  none  perhaps  equal  it  in  productiveness.  It 
might  fairly  be  regarded  as  the  type  of  the  species  from  which  all 
the  other  varieties  by  easy  gradations  of  change  might  readily  have 
been  derived. 

I  have  succeeded  in  establishing  the  existence  of  only  one  new 
and  permanent  variety  produced  by  the  intermixture  of  the  origi- 
nal Chinese  cane  with  an  imphee.  This  is  a  cross,  originating  in 
Western  Pennsylvania,  between  the  former  and  the  red  imphee, 
(Schlagoova  of  Wray.)  For  future  identification  a  specimen  seed- 
head  of  this  new  hybrid  was  deposited  in  the  collection  of  the  Com- 
missioner of  Agriculture  at  Washington  during  the  past  year.  It 
possesses  the  productiveness  and  saccharine  richness  of  the  Chi- 
nese sorghum  and  the  early  maturity  of  the  red  imphee,  ripening 
its  seed  shortly  after  the  Minnesota  amber.  Naturally  it  pro- 
duces no  sugar,  but  when  properly  treated  its  juice  yields  an 
amount  of  it  not  excelled  by  any  other  cane.  This  hybrid  has 
been  in  existence  for  two  or  three  years,  and  its  character  may  be 
considered  fixed.  It  originated  simply  from  the  planting  of  the 
two  sorts,  from  which  it  is  derived,  in  close  proximity  to  each 
other  for  several  successive  years.  As  an  example  of  a  permanent 
consolidation  of  some  of  the  best  qualities  of  the  varieties  from 
which  it  sprung  and  of  the  suppression  of  some  of  these  in  each 
that  we  would  most  desire  to  see  eliminated,  it  affords  evidence 
that  we  have  it  in  our  power  by  skillful  and  judicious  hybridizing 
to  produce  new  varieties  of  these  plants  much  superior  to  any  at 
present  known.  Great  good  would,  no  doubt,  result  from  future 
experiments  in  this  direction,  if  they  are  conducted  with  sagacity 
and  care. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  Chinese  cane  grown  here  is 
the  only  variety  grown  in  its  original  home.  A  tendency  similar 
to  that  manifested  by  the  canes  of  South  Africa  to  divergence 
within  certain  limits,  and  the  formation  of  distinct  sub-varieties,  is 
also  exhibited  by  the  Asiatic  sorghum.  With  the  object  of  deter- 
mining this  point,  I  made  an  examination  of  the  immense  seed  col- 


28  MAIZE   AND   SORGHUM   AS   SUGAR   PLANTS. 

lection  forwarded  by  the  Chinese  Government  to  the  late  Centen- 
nial Exhibition  at  Philadelphia,  and  discovered  the  existence  of 
four  distinct  sorts  of  sorghum,  of  all  of  which,  through  the  kindness 
of  the  cDmmissioner  in  charge,  I  obtained  specimens  for  planting 
and  experiment.  Confirmatory  of  all  previous  accounts  from  that 
country,  the  statement  was  made  that  these  plants  are  grown  in 
China  almost  exclusively  for  the  grain,  which  is  ground  and  made 
into  bread. 

The  seeds  of  these  specimens  grew  well  and  ripened  earl}r  last 
year,  and  although  nothing  can  be  affirmed  positively  as  to  their 
comparative  saccharine  value,  some  of  them  are  new  to  this  coun- 
try, and  they  will  be  subjected  to  careful  experiment  this  season, 
(1878.) 

There  is  nothing  in  the  past  history  of  any  variety  of  these  plants 
that  leads  to  the  conclusion  that  they  had  ever  been  utilized  for 
the  extraction  of  their  sugar  in  the  countries  from  which  they 
originally  came. 


V. 

MAIZE  AND  SORGHUM  AS  SUGAR  PLANTS. 

"Value  of  Sorghum  and  Maize  as  Sugar  Plants — Nature  of  the  New  Inves- 
tigations Made— Errors  Corrected— Hitherto  Discordant  Statements  Recon- 
cilable—Newly Established  Facts— Comparison  with  the  Sugar  Beet  in 
France— Adaptation  of  Maize  and  Sorghum  to  the  Climate  of  the  United 
States— Value  of  American  Corn— Overproduction— Relief  for  Unproductive 
Labor— New  Use  for  Unemployed  Machinery— Choice  of  Varieties  in  the 
Use  of  Corn  and  Cane— Brief  Period  of  Growth  Comparatively— Greater 
Climatic  Range — Causes  of  Failure  of  Beet-growing  in  the  United  States — 
Effects  of  Moisture— Soils— Manures— Greater  Simplicity  and  Much-dimin- 
ished Expense  of  the  New  Process— Improvement  of  the  Soil— Yield  of  Corn 
and  Sorghum  in  Sugar— Gross  Yield  of  Maize  and  the  Beet  in  France— Con- 
clusions. 

I  now  propose  to  relate  more  particularly  the  conclusions  upon 
which  the  foregoing  statements  of  the  value  of  maize  and  sorghum 
as  sugar-producing  plants  are  based. 


CONFLICTING   STATEMENTS   HARMONIZED.  29 

To  do  this  fairly,  and  with  the  conciseness  which  is  here  neces- 
sary, a  comparison  will  be  made,  in  all  important  points,  between 
these  plants,  respectively,  and  the  beet  and  the  southern  cane. 
From  this  the  reader  will  be  able  to  decide  intelligently  as  to  all 
points  of  practical  value. 

The  facts  adduced  as  to  maize  and  sorghum  are  derived  from  a 
great  number  of  analyses  and  practical  experiments,  a  condensed 
account  of  which  will  be  found  in  the  Appendix. 

The  chemical  investigations  were  conducted  with  care  and  after 
the  most  approved  methods  now  in  use.  For  the  quantitative  de- 
termination of  the  sugars,  Fehling's  standard  cuprie  solution  was 
generally  employed.  The  plants,  chemically  tested,  were  used 
when  freshly  cut  from  the  ground,  unless  it  is  otherwise  indicated, 
and  they  were  taken  at  all  periods  of  their  growth  from  the  time 
when  sugar  began  to  be  developed  in  the  juice  until  it  ceased  to 
yield  it  in  remunerative  quantities.  Many  varieties  of  both  species 
were  tested.  The  action  of  manures  upon  the  juice  of  the  growing 
plants,  the  effect  of  differences  of  soil  and  climate,  the  influence 
of  diverse  modes  of  planting  and  culture,  the  comparative  yield 
under  the  various  modes  of  treatment,  estimates  of  the  value  of 
some  of  our  most  prominent  varieties  of  corn,  grown  for  sugar 
alone,  as  compared  with  the  same  when  grown  so  as  to  utilize  the 
plant  not  only  for  the  extraction  of  the  sugar  but  also  for  the 
preservation  in  the  best  condition  at  the  same  time  of  the  imma- 
ture grain,  and  of  other  residual  products,  have  all  received  more 
or  less  careful  consideration.  But  the  most  prominent  attention 
was  bestowed  upon  the  characteristics  of  the  juice  itself  in  order 
to  secure  the  separation  of  the  sugar. 

This  investigation  was  entered  upon  with  the  determination  not 
to  permit  any  preconceived  opinions,  either  of  myself  or  others,  to 
influence  its  course  ;  and,  as  a  result,  many  of  those  opinions  were 
shown  to  rest  on  very  insufficient  grounds.  But  it  is  especially 
gratifying  to  me  now  to  say  that  how  much  soever  the  published 
statements  of  some  eminent  chemists  are  apparently  at  variance 
with  each  other  as  to  the  composition  of  the  juice  of  sorghum,  no 
well-established  fact  is  necessarity  discordant  with  what  is  now 
known.  The  truth,  so  far  as  it  is  clearly  ascertained,  harmonizes 
all  the  facts  „ 


30  MAIZE   AND   SORGHUM   AS   SUGAR  PLANTS. 

Notwithstanding  the  great  diversity  prevailing  among  different 
varieties  of  the  same  species,  in  some  respects,  the*  most  remark- 
able uniformity  was  found  to  exist  in  the  chemical  constitution  of 
the  juice  at  the  same  stage  of  growth  of  the  plant. 

The  results  of  the  experiments,  so  far  as  they  relate  to  maize, 
were  announced  for  the  first  time  in  the  Philadelphia  Public  Ledger, 
of  December  1st,  1876,  and  specimens  of  the  sugar  made  from 
maize  during  the  autumn  of  that  year  were  displayed  at  the  Cen- 
tennial Exhibition  toward  its  close. 

During  the  past  year  (1877)  the  best  results  of  the  previous  sea- 
son were  fully  confirmed  ;  the  process  was  fully  perfected,  and  its 
applicability  to  the  extraction  and  crystallization  of  the  sugar  of 
the  Chinese  and  African  varieties  of  sorghum  was  fully  establish- 
ed. In  fact,  the  facility  with  which  sorghum  juice  crystallizes  un- 
der this  treatment,  is  as  remarkable  as  its  obstinate  refusal  to  do 
so  under  any  other. 

The  success  of  the  beet-sugar  manufacture  in  Europe,  the  at- 
tempts which  have  been  made  to  establish  it  here,  and  the  circum- 
stance that  the  beet  is  the  only  plant  grown  in  temperate  latitudes 
from  which,  hitherto,  sugar  has  ever  been  obtained  in  any  adequate 
quantity,  have  given  it  special  prominence,  and  it  is  with  that 
manufacture,  perfected  as  it  has  been  in  its  processes  and  appli- 
ances, that  we  must  now  make  the  closest  comparison.  And  that  it 
may  be  made  with  the  utmost  fairness,  we  assume  as  true,  what 
has  by  no  means  been  proved,  by  the  experience  of  those  who  have 
fostered  the  beet-sug  ir  industry  here,  that  it  is  capable  of  being 
carried  on  in  the  United  States  as  successfully  as  it  is  in  France 
and  Germany. 

But  it  is  now  well  known  that  the  beet-sugar  manufacturer,  at 
the  very  initial  point  of  his  work  here,  encounters  the  discouraging 
obstacle  hitherto  insurmountable,  of  not  being  able  to  secure  cheap 
labor  for  the  growing  of  the  raw  material.  Independent  of  the 
great  expensiveness  of  the  machinery  arid  of  the  processes  employed, 
and  the  high  degree  of  skill  required,  it  is  necessary  that  radical 
changes  should  be  made  in  the  means  and  methods  of  agricultural 
labor  now  existing  and  established  in  this  country,  together  with  the 
great  loss  of  time  necessary  to  make  such  changes. 


BENEFITS   OF   THE   NEW   INDUSTRY.  31 

On  the  other  hand,  the  cultivation  of  Indian  corn  and  its  now 
fully  acclimatized  relative,  sorghum,  is  reduced  here  at  present  al- 
most to  a  science.  It  may  be  said  that  we  have  scarcely  anything 
new  or  valuable  now  to  learn  in  regard  to  the  growth  of  either  of 
them.  By  means  of  labor-saving  implements  and  skill  in  the  use 
of  them  here,  if  anywhere,  the  cost  of  growing  them  has  been  re- 
duced to  the  lowest  attainable  minimum.  No  American  who  visit- 
ed the  Centennial  Exhibition  at  Philadelphia  and  compared  the 
maize  of  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  of  the  plains  of  Hungary,  of  Portu- 
gal, Italy  or  France,  with  the  product  of  the  valley  of  the  Kansas, 
or  of  the  prairies  of  Iowa  or  Illinois,  but  must  have  felt  that,  in  all 
that  pertains  to  the  production  of  this  grandest  of  the  cereals,  we 
are  unrivaled  by  all  the  world. 

But  our  very  success  is  our  peril.  The  over-production  of  corn 
has  become  almost  the  bane  of  our  western  agriculture.  The  ease 
with  which  maize  is  grown  has  a  fascination  for  the  farmer  on  the 
prairies  which  it  is  difficult  to  resist ;  so  great,  indeed,  that  often- 
times to  him  ruinously  glutted  markets  and  lack  of  transportation 
do  not  have  their  proper  effect  in  preventing  a  continued  repeti- 
tion of  the  evil.  The  statistics  at  Washington  abundantly  show 
that,  in  the  case  of  this  crop,  unrequited  labor  almost  invariably 
follows  in  years  of  largely  increased  yield. 

It  is  just  here  that  this  new  industry  comes  in  to  give  immediate 
relief  to  unremunerative  labor  by  turning  a  part  of  the  overflowing 
stream  of  production  into  a  new  channel,  thus  utilizing  our  greatest 
waste  of  labor  to  supply  our  greatest  want. 

It  is  from  the  uprising  of  such  an  industry  as  this  that  the  high- 
est benefits  resulting  from  a  division  of  labor  among  our  people 
can  be  realized.  It  may  be  established  without  a  jar  in  the  routine 
of  agricultural  work,  or  any  inroad  upon  established  usas;e.  The 
redundant  population  of  the  cities  will  flow  out  to  meet  the  de- 
mand thus  newly  created  for  laborers,  and  the  solution  of  a  much 
vexed  question  now  of  national  importance  may  thus,  almost  in- 
sensibly, be  reached. 

If  sorghum  be  grown  in  preference  to  Indian  corn,  as  will  often 
be  the  case,  we  have  the  advantage  at  the  start  that  it  ha3  been 


32  MAIZE   AND   SORGHUM    AS   S.UGAR   PLANTS. 

long  enough  in  the  country  to  make  us  familiar  with  all  its  require- 
ments as  to  soil,  climate,  and  cultivation.  It  is  scarcely  to  be 
regretted  that  its  full  value  has  not  heretofore  been  realized,  for  it 
is  not  probable  that  the  attempt  to  supplement  a  defective  knowl- 
edge of  the  means  required  for  the  defecation  of  the  juice  of  the 
plant  by  mechanical  devices  of  such  rare  ingenuity  for  open-air 
evaporation  as  now  exist,  would  have  been  made  to  the  same  extent 
as  now.  This  concentration  of  inventive  talent  upon  a  single 
point — although  it  was  not  the  most  important  one — led  to  the  use, 
if  nol  the  discovery,  of  some  principles  in  the  evaporation  of  sac- 
charine juices  which  have  been  overlooked.  To  have  learned  thor- 
oughly the  fact  that  rapid  evaporation,  at  the  atmospheric  pressure, 
of  thin  films  of  liquids  containing  sugar,  may  be  made  to  equal  the 
results  of  boiling  in  a  vacuum,  is  worth  all  the  past  twenty  years 
of  baffled  expectation. 

All  over  our  land  there  is  a  large  amount  of  capital  invested  in 
sugar  apparatus,  now  almost  idle,  the  outcome  of  the  early  interest 
taken  in  Chinese  cane.  Most  of  this,  although  undervalued  in 
many  quarters  as  slight  and  insignificant,  is  just  what  is  needed  at 
the  start  in  this  industry;  and  it  is  widely  distributed  over  the 
country  and  in  intelligent  hands.  Serving  a  present  purpose,  it 
will  lead  inevitably  to  the  rapid  introduction  of  more  perfect  ma- 
chinery, and  to  all  the  advantages  resulting  from  concentrated 
capital  and  skill. 

These  considerations,  together  with  the  fact  that  the  crystalliza- 
tion of  the  sugar  from  these  juices  is  now  reduced  to  an  absolute 
certainty,  have  their  value  more  than  doubly  enhanced  by  the  cir- 
cumstance that,  from  the  very  outset,  our  choice  as  to  the  source 
of  production  lies  between  maiz?  and  a  still  richer  saccharine 
plant,  of  similar  requirements  as  to  soil,  climate  and  general  modes 
of  treatment,  but  sufficiently  diverse  to  enable  us  to  usje  the  one  to 
supplement  the  other  under  a  variety  of  circumstances,  when  either 
could  not  be  used  so  well  alone ;  both  capable  of  having  their  sugar 
extracted  by  the  same  process,  and  thus  giving  us  a  combination  of 
advantages  such  as  belong  to  no  single  sugar  plant. 

There  are  also  a  large  number  of  well-established  and  clearly- 


MAIZE  COMPARED  WITH  SUGAR  BEET.         33 

marked  varieties  of  each,  giving  us  a  much  wider  range  of  subor- 
dinate qualities  to  adapt  them  to  meet  diverse  local  peculiarities  of 
climate  than  are  secured  by  any  existing  varieties  of  the  beet ;  and 
the  probability  of  still  further  improvement  in  this  direction  may 
be  safely  predicted. 

It  will  be  observed*  that  the  period  of  growth  of  either  plant 
when  used  for  this  purpose,  and  the  time  while  they  occupy  the 
ground,  is  less  by  one-half  than  is  required  by  the  beet ;  and  con- 
sequently the  profits  of  a  second  crop  of  another  kind  the  same 
season  is  easily  procurable  from  the  same  ground  when  it  is  well 
cared  for,  and  is  to  be  credited  to  these  plants  as  against  the  beet. 

The  expense  of  preparing  the  ground  and  planting  the  seed  is 
about  equal  for  all  these  plants,  and  they  have  thus  a  great  advan- 
tage over  the  tropical  cane. 

The  climatic  range  of  these  saccharine  cereals  on  this  continent 
is  vastly  greater  than  that  of  the  beet.  It  is  also  worthy  of  notice 
that  a  broad  area  of  territory  within  which  it  would  be  possible  to 
grow  the  beet  toward  the  South  affords  plants  with  a  juice  too 
weak  to  be  profitable  and  too  liable  to  fermentation  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  factories  there  ;  a  temperature  as  high  as  60°  F.  during 
the  working  season  being  fatal  to  this  pursuit  with  existing  pro- 
cesses. The  latitude  of  45°  N.  is  the  limit  in  France.  No  such 
extreme  delicacy  of  organization  characterizes  maize  or  sorghum, 
and  their  juices  are  almost  equally  strong  under  the  summer  sun 
of  either  Texas  or  Maine. 

Deficiency  of  moisture  during  our  early  summer — a  very  common 
occurrence — almost  ruins  the  beet  crop  for  sugar ;  and  it  is  partly 
the  cause  of  its  deficient  yield  here.  But  maize  can  mature  its 
juice  in  a  season  of  early  summer  drought  by  being  planted  as  late 
as  July  in  the  latitude  of  Pittsburgh.  The  beet,  on  the  contrary, 
requires  the  whole  season  to  ripen. 

In  point  of  adaptation  to.  the  rich,  deep,  natural  soils  of  our 
western  prairies  and  the  alluvions  of  our  rivers,  no  plant  grown 
either  for  sugar  or  grain,  perhaps,  ranks  equal  to  Indian  corn. 
Sorghum  thrives  equally  as  well  upon  them,  if -they  are  not  clefl- 

*  See  Appendix  A. 


34  MAIZE   AND   SORGHUM    AS   SUGAR   PLANTS. 

cient  in  drainage;  but  heretofore  beet-growing  upon  the  prairies 
lias  met  with  but  little  success.  Among  the  causes  of  failure,  the 
preponderance  of  nitric  salts  in  the  juice,  derived  from  the  soil,  is 
assigned  as  the  first. 

All  sugar  plants  suffer  from  the  effects  of  manures  abounding  in 
nitrogen,  directly  applied ;  but  the  presence  of  certain  mineral 
salts  in  constant  quantity,  generally,  for  each  species,  show  that 
they  require  a  soil  rich  in  all  the  ordinary  elements  of  plant 
growth.  Normally,  the  azotized  substances  in  all  three  of  the 
above  are  not  far  from  equal.  But  the  presence  in  the  beet  of  a 
great  amount  of  mineral  salts,  which  cannot  be  eliminated  in  the 
processes  of  manufacture,  destroys  utterly  the  value  of  the  molasses 
for  ordinary  use.  Indian  corn,  for  a  similar  reason,  does  not  afford 
as  palatable  a  syrup  as  sorghum.  The  latter,  in  this  respect,  is 
capable  of  taking,  when  the  syrup  is  purified,  a  front  rank  among 
all  plants  of  its  class,  and  in  the  quantity  of  crystallized  sugar 
which  it  produces  it  stands  next  to  the  southern  cane.  It  has  been 
the  aim  to  limit  the  amount  of  molasses  (drainage)  from  either 
plant,  by  the  new  process,  almost  entirely  to  the  glucose  originally 
in  the  juice ;  and  this  has  been  so  nearly  realized  in  the  case  of 
sorghum  as  to  enable  us  to  extract  10  pounds  of  crystallized 
sugar  from  13J  pounds  of  very  dense  syrup,  a  result  which,  in  the 
practical  manufacture  of  sugar  from  other  sources,  is  almost  un- 
paralleled. But  it  is  in  the  vastly  diminished  cost  of  the  produc- 
tion of  well  crystallized  sugar  from  these  plants  by  the  means  now 
discovered,  as  compared  with  that  from  the  beet,  that  the  most 
marked  disparity  exists.  In  sugar-producing  capacity  the  Chinese 
cane  is  in  advance  of  Indian  corn,  in  the  proportion  of  14  to  12  or 
7  to  6,  but  the  greater  value  of  the  grain  of  corn  (well  dried  sweet 
corn  being  worth  about  $20  per  barrel  of  300  pounds)  as  compared 
with  the  grain  of  sorghum,  fully  compensates  for  the  deficiency  of 
sugar. 

The  almost  absolute  certainty  of  realizing  a  large  return  from 
both  the  dried  sweet  corn  and  the  sugar  in  our  long  summers  is  a 
strong  argument  in  its  favor.  In  this  case,  of  course,  only  a  large 
stemmed  and  large  eared  variety  of  sweet  corn  should  be  grown. 


SOURCES  OP  PROFIT.  35 

The  amount  of  molasses  (as  drainage)  finally  resulting  from 
either  is  small,  but  greater  in  the  case  of  maize,  while  that  from 
sorghum  is  comparatively  fine  flavored  and  freer  from  mineral 
salts. 

The  greatly  diminished  cost  of  growing  these  plants,  as  com- 
pared with  the  beet,  arises  from  the  peculiar  adaptation  to  them 
of  our  soil  and  climate,  the  use  of  our  greatly  improved  agricultu- 
ral implements,  and  the  substitution  largely  of  animal  instead  of 
human  labor.  But  the  disparity  in  cost  becomes  the  widest  when 
the  processes  of  manufacture  are  contrasted.  Some  appreciation 
of  this  will  be  realized  when  it  is  stated  that  the  three  chief  items 
of  expenditure  in  the  beet-sugar  processes,  viz  :  boneblackfiltratioi^ 
carbonatation,  and  vacuum  apparatus,  are,  in  this  process,  entirely 
thrown  out ;  the  first  two  as  entirely  useless  and  the  last  as  un- 
necessary. In  the  largest  maize  and  sorghum  sugar  factories  a 
preference  may  perhaps  be  given  to  vacuum  finishers^  but  in  opera- 
tions of  less  magnitude  the  comparatively  simple  and  equally 
effective  and  rapid  system  of  final  evaporation  of  syrup  in  thin 
films  and  at  a  low  temperature  will  prevail. 

Not  the  least  of  the  advantages  which  will  result  from  the  new 
sugar  industry  in  the  United  States  will  be  in  the  improvement  of 
the  soil.  Some  of  the  rich  soils  of  the  West  have  borne  successive 
crops  of  corn  for  more  than-twenty  years,  in  which  cases,  generally, 
the  grain  was  marketed  and  the  soil  has  been  depleted  of  its  most 
valuable  mineral  constituents.  E  ven  on  these  soils  the  effects  of  such 
a  system  are  now  becoming  apparent.  But  if  sugar  is  made,  and 
the  soft  grain  in  the  dried  state  only  is  sent  abroad,  but  little  will 
be  necessary  to  be  returned  to  any  soil,  already  in  good  condition, 
to  maintain  its  fertility  for  this  crop.  The  elements  of  sugar  being 
derived  from  the  air  and  water  only,  it  abstracts  from  the  soil 
nothing  of  consequence,  if  the  trash  be  carefully  returned,  while 
the  ashes  from  the  furnaces  and  all  residual  chemical  products 
will,  if  properly  applied,  constantly  supply  more  of  the  salts,  &c., 
than  the  miniature  grain  takes  away.  But  with  somewhat  less 
profit,  the  soft  corn  and  the  seed  of  sorghum  may  be  fed  on  the 
ground,  and  a  constant  accession  of  the  elements  of  fertility  may 


36  MAIZE    AND   SORGHUM   AS   SUGAR   PLANTS. 

thus  be  secured  to  the  soil.  Besides,  the  thorough  tillage  which 
the  business  demands  will  go  far  to  inaugurate  a  rational  system  of 
farming,  where  it  is  lacking,  increase  the  value  of  land,  and 
cheapen  production. 

The  maximum  crop  of  sugar  beets  that  can  ordinarily  be  grown 
upon  an  acre  of  ground  is  found  to  be  such  as  to  allow  the  rows  in 
which  they  are  planted  te  be  one  foot  ten  inches  apart,  and  the 
plants  one  foot  six  inches  apart  in  the  rows,  thus  producing  over 
21,000  beets  to  the  acre.  It  is  not  profitable  to  grow  beets  for  this 
purpose  of  very  large  size.  They  ordinarily  weigh  from  one  to 
three  pounds  each.  It  is  not  possible,  as  yet,  to  determine  the 
maximum  product  of  corn  or  cane  attainable.  I  do  not  think  that 
the  largest  yield  yet  reported  has  reached  that  limit,  nor  perhaps 
can  the  mode  of  planting  be  indicated  by  which  it  can  be  secured. 
My  own  experience,  however,  would  show,  perhaps,  as  the  most 
advisable,  the  adoption  of  a  rule  to  plant  in  rows  three  feet  apart, 
the  hills  at  intervals  of  twenty  inches  apart,  so  as  to  admit  of  cross 
cultivation  once  or  twice  in  the  season  by  an  implement  drawn  by 
horses,  passed  between  two  or  three  of  the  cross-rows  at  once. 
The  rows,  both  ways,  should  be  laid  out  with  accuracy ;  the  num- 
ber of  plants  in  the  hill  to  number  from  two  to  four ;  the  weight  of 
trimmed  canes  to  the  hill  two  to  eight  pounds. 

The  stems  of  "  evergreen  corn  "  in  Pennsylvania  will  average 
one  pound  each,  varying  from  twelve  ounces  to  forty-eight  ounces 
each.  Single,  trimmed  stems  of  Kansas  corn  have  equaled  six 
pounds  each,  but  the  juice  of  this  giant  growth  is  more  impure  than 
that  of  one  of  inferior  size ;  but  an  average  of  three  pounds  of 
stem  to  the  hill  will  yield  21,700  pounds  to  the  acre  of  trimmed 
stems,  giving  180  gallons  of  dense  syrup.,  or  1,800  pounds  of  crys- 
tallizejl  sugar,  arid  44  gallons  of  syrup  of  drainage-,  (molasses.) 

If  a  growth  of  four  pounds  to  the  hill  is  secured,  (an  average  easily 
attained  upon  good  soil  with  good  culture,)  2,250  pounds  of  sugar 
and  55  gallons  of  molasses  will  be  obtained  i:om  225  gallons  of 
dense  syrup. 

From  experiments  made  the  past  season  I  conclude  that  an 
attainable  limit  is  3,000  pounds  of  sugar  and  66  gallons  of  molasses 


YIELD.  37 

from  an  acre  of  land  which  would  readily  yield  100  bushels  of 
ripened  corn,  and  which  if  planted  in  sugar  beets  would  yield 
about  the  same  amount  of  sugar  in  France. 

If  sweet  corn  (evergreen)  be  grown  for  the  grain  and  sugar  com- 
bined, a  reduction  of  one-third  will  have^to  b3  made  in  the  yield  of 
sugar  in  each  of  the  above  estimates  respectively.  The  yield  of 
sorghum  in  sugar  will  be  about  one-seventh  greater  than  corn  in 
each  of  the  above  instances. 

From  100  to  350  gallons  of  syrup  per  acre  have  been  produced 
from  this  plant  in  this  country,  and  a  yield  of  300  gallons  of  syrup, 
so  dense  as  to  seem  an  almost  solid  mass  of  sugar  when  granulated, 
can  be  secured  from  an  acre  of  land  by  sufficiently  close  and  reg- 
ular planting,  good  cultivation  and  a  thoroughly  prepared  soil. 
Two  gallons  of  such  syrup  per  square  rod  of  ground  should  in  all 
cases  be  aimed  at  as  an  average  attainment.  Of  course,  while  the 
means  taken  to  grow  a  crop  of  corn  or 'cane  vary  as  widely  as  they 
have  done  hitherto,  often  without  any  regard  to  system  or  eco- 
nomical management,  the  average  production  will  fall  far  below 
what  it  ought  to  reach. 

While  the  maximum  yield  of  the  beet  has  reached  in  Europe 
5,000  pounds,  the  average  per  acre  in  France  has  dropped  to  1,071 
pounds.  The  lowest  remunerative  yield  of  sorghum— 100  gallons 
of  syrup — will  produce  the  same  amount. 

When  it  is  considered  that  not  a  pound  of  sugar  is  wasted  from 
the  juice  obtained  at  the  mill,  that  the  softer  substance  of  the 
stalk,  either  of  corn  or  cane,  yields  its  juice  in  much  larger  pro- 
portion than  that  of  the  southern  sugar  cane,  that  the  juice  itself 
is  from  10  to  50  per  cent,  stronger  in  sugar  than  that  of  the  beet 
ordinarily,  and  that  the  product  of  green  fodder  from  maize  in 
countries  less  favorable  to  its  growth  than  our  own  has  reached 
maxima  much  exceeding  those  upon  which  the  above  estimates 
are  based,  they  will  be  acknowledged  as  fairly  representing  the 
capacities  of  these  plants. 

In  France,  the  home  of  the  beet-sugar  industry,  extensive  ex- 
periments have  been  made  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  the  larg- 
est attainable  yield  of  various  plants  for  green  fodde-r  for  stock ; 
the  process  of  ensilege  or  fermentation  in  pits  being  adopted  for 


38  SYSTEM   OF   MANUFACTURE. 

curing  it.  In  the  maize-growing  departments  of  that  country, 
twenty-six  to  thirty-five  tons  of  green  maize  fodder  per  acre  is  es- 
timated as  the  average  yield.  But  far  greater  yields  are  announced 
there  in  different  quarters,  as  the  results  by  higher  culture.  Upon 
a  schistose,  sandy  soil  in  the  department  of  Finisterre,  limed  and 
enriched  with  barn-yard  manure  and  superphosphates,  44.61  tons 
(89,220  pounds)  in  one  case,  and  66.91  tons  (133,820  pounds)  in  an- 
other, of  the  Caragua  or  giant  maize,  have  already  been  produced 
there  per  acre. 

AI.  Le  Conteaux*  in  the  journal  Pratique  d"1  Agriculture  summa- 
rizes .the  comparative  maximum  yields  of  maize  and  the  sugar  beet, 
as  fodder  plants,  as  follows  :  Caragua  maize,  66.96  tons  ;  sugar 
beets,  35.68  tons.  Thus  in  the  gross  yield,  for  the  same  purposes, 
maize  leads  the  sugar  beet  by  almost  one-half.  One  third  being  de- 
ducted for  weight  of  blades,  immature  ears,  &c.,  there  will  be  left 
a  weight  of  44  tons  or  88,003  pounds  of  trimmed  stems  per  acre, 
equivalent  to  the  enormous  amount  of  8,800  pounds  of  sugar,  if  the 
juice  be  of  the  average  quality.  One-half  this  yield  is  much  be- 
yond the  maximum  which  has  been  assumed  for  Indian  corn  here. 
It  is  asserted  that  40  tons  per  acre  of  Chinese  cane  have  been 
grown  in  the  United  States. 


VI. 

SYSTEM  OP  MANUFACTUKE. 

Preparatory  Work— Selection  of  Seed— Extension  of  Sugar  Season  by  a 
Proper  Choice  of  Varieties — Prominent  Large  Stemmed  Varieties  of  Corn 
and  Sorghum— Modes  of  Hastening  Q-er  mi  nation— Preparation  of  the  Soil 
—Fall  Plowing— Clovering— Drainage— Fertilizers— Influence  of  Ammonia 
—Effects  of  Certain  Mineral  Salts  on  Crystallization— Effects  of  Moderate 
Stimulation  by  Use  of  Ammoniacal  Manures — Gypsum. 

Iii  the  following  pages  I  design  to  embody  for  general  use  the 
details  of  the  system  of  manufacture.    Its  practicability  has  now 
been  fully  tested,  and  no  part  of  it  is  recommended  for  general 
*  Report,  Dept.  Ag.  of  U.  S.  for  1875,  p.  404. 


PREPARATORY   WORK.  39 

adoption  which  my  own  experience  has  not  sanctioned  the  use  of, 
not  only  as  eminently  practical,  but  in  its  principal  new  feature, 
the  defecation  of  the  juice,  as  the  sole  discovered  means  by  which 
the  same  ends  can  be  attained.  Its  application  is  not  limited  to 
any  special  variety  of  either  corn  or  sorghum,  or  by  any  varied  con- 
ditions of  climate  or  soil  within  the  United  States  as  far  as  already 
known. 

By  this  means,  the  common  yellow  corn  yields  its  sugar  as 
readily  and  abundantly  as  the  "sweet"  corn  of  the  gardens,  and 
the  refractory  Chinese  sorghum,  hitherto  held  to  be  inferior  to  the 
imphees,  and  useless  except  for  syrup,  now  seems  to  be  unequaled 
by  any  sugar-producing  plant  in  the  world  except  the  tropical 
cane. 

But  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  strict  adherence  to  a  well- 
defined  system  is  essential  to  success.  At  the  outset  every  availa- 
ble means  within  reach  should  be  resorted  to,  to  increase  the  produc- 
tiveness and  improve  the  quality  of  the  saccharine  plant  itself. 

Care  should  be  exercised  in  the  selection  of  the  seed  and  in  the 
choice  of  such  varieties  of  maize  or  sorghum  as  will  best  serve  the 
purpose  of  the  planter.  If  he  selects  corn,  and  has  facilities  for 
drying  the  unmature  grain  or  otherwise  preserving  it  for  table  use, 
he  will  choose  one  of  the  large-stemmed,  later  ripening  varieties 
of  sweet  corn — preferably  "StowelPs  evergreen."  If  he  designs 
to  feed  the  soft  corn  to  stock,  he  may  take  either  the  "evergreen" 
corn  or  any  of  the  large  sorts  of  common  yellow  or  white  field 
corn ;  and  either  by  successive  plantings  at  intervals,  or  by  the 
selection  of  varieties  of  longer  or  shorter  periods  of  growth,  he 
may  extend  the  time  for  the  working  up  of  corn,  in  proper  condi- 
tion, from  the  10th  of  August  until  the  1st  of  November,  in  the 
latitude  of  the  Middle  States.  The  seed  of  "  Sto well's  evergreen 
corn,"  grown  for  the  two-fold  purpose  above  mentioned,  should  al- 
ways be  taken  from  the  upper  and  best-developed  ear  on  the  stalk. 
The  stems  should  be  stout  and  well  developed,  and  produce  not 
fewer  than  two  large  ears  each. 

There  are  tall  and  stately  races  of  maize  which  now  attain  to 
unequaled  perfection  in  the  middle  belt  of  the  United  States,  espe- 


40  SYSTEM    OF   MANUFACTURE. 

ciiilly  on  the  rich  river  alluvions  and  prairie  soils  of  the  central 
States.  To  these  correspond  certain  varieties  of  sorghum,  of  which 
the  Chinese  cane,  and  the  "Libcrian"  and  "Oomseeana"  are  con- 
spicuous representatives.  Some  individual  specimens  of  these  are 
occasionally  found  to  mature  their  seed  much  earlier  than  others. 
If  such  are  strong-stemmed,  and  when  tested  prove  to  be  rich  in 
sugar,  their  seed  should  be  reserved  for  future  planting,  but 
strength  of  stem  and  richness  of  juice  should  never  be  sacrificed  to 
secure  early  maturity.  Ordinarily,  the  largest  and  heaviest  seeds 
produce  the  strongest  and  healthiest  plants.  The  earliest  ripened 
and  best-developed  seeds  on  a  given  panicle  of  sorghum  are  gen- 
erally found  on  its  summit  and  upper  half. 

Germination  may  b3  hastened  by  steeping  the  seed  just  previous 
to  planting.  All  sorghum  growers  are  familiar  with  the  fact  that 
by  pouring  hot  water  upon  the  seed  contained  in  a  sieve  or  coarse 
sack  so  as  to  permit  of  its  draining  off  immediately,  and  setting  it 
aside  in  a  warm  place  for  from  twelve  to  twenty-four  hours,  and 
then  planting  in  well-prepared  ground,  its  growth  will  be  hastened 
by  several  days'  time ;  and  there  is  great  advantage  in  doing  this, 
if,  for  any  reason,  the  planting  has  been  unduly  delayed ;  but, 
where  early  spring  planting  is  practical,  which  seems  to  be  the 
most  congenial  to  the  natural  habit  of  the  plant,  this  course  is 
harmful,  as  it  is  also  during  a  very  wet  season,  causing  the  seed 
to  rot. 

As  a  rule,  select  the  best  developed  seed,  from  the  best  speci- 
mens of  the  best  varieties,  and  plant  early. 

Fall  plowing,  or  plowing  during  the  frequently  mild  weather  of 
our  winter  months,  is  a  suitable  and  often  a  necessary  preparation 
to  early  planting,  and  the  work  being  done  during  a  season  of  com- 
parative leisure,  it  has  the  additional  advantage  of  securing  the 
aid  of  the  pulverizing  and  aerating  power  of  the  frost  upon  the 
soil.  The  light,  spongy  texture  of  land,  so  essential  to  the 
rapid  growth  of  vegetation  in  early  spring,  and  which  on  stiff  clayey 
soils  particularly  is  so  difficult  to  attain,  is  simply  an  example 
of  ..the  effect  produced  by  allying  ourselves  with  the  favoring  pow- 
ers of  nature  instead  of  running  counter  to  them. 


PREPARATION    OF   THE   SOIL.  41 

The  adequate  preparation  of  the  soil  need  scarcely  be  insisted 
upon,  and«the  mode  of  planting  and  cultivation  best  adapted  to 
both  corn  and  cane  are  so  well  known  as  to  require  but  little  dis- 
cussion. In  all  cases,  however,  this  part  of  the  work  should  be  of 
the  most  thorough  character.  The  soil  itself  should  be  naturally 
rich  in  all  the  elements  of  plant  growth.  In  point  of  adaptation  the 
preference  between  different  classes  of  soils  will  be  in  favor  of  a 
light,  deep,  -mellow,  calcareous  loam ;  and  the  more  nearly  all  nat- 
ural soils  designed  for  sugar  culture  are  brought  up  artificially  to 
that  character  the  better.  Heavy  clay  lands,  especially  those  that 
have  been  run  down  by  injudicious  cropping,  can  be  restored  and 
put  in  condition  more  quickly  by  seeding  down  to  clover — plaster- 
ing heavily  in  the  early  spring  and  turning  under  the  green  crop. 
New  lands  from  which  a  crop  or  two  of  grain  have  been  taken  are 
in  a  favorable  condition. 

The  drainage  of  sugar  lands  should  always  be  as  perfect  as  pos- 
sible to  prevent  absorption  by  the  roots  of  solutions  of  certain 
salts  in  undue  quantity,  or  their  decay  by  constant  contact  with 
the  stagnant  wtter  of  the  sub-soil. 

The  qualities  of  the  soil  best  adapted  to  sugar  production  from 
these  plants  are  not  essentially  different  from  those  commonly 
considered  necessary  to  produce  a  good  crop  of  corn,  except  that 
thorough  drainage  be  secured  and  the  application  of  ammoniacal 
manures  restricted. 

The  presence  in  sufficient  quantity  of  potash,  lime,  gypsum,  and 
the  phosphates  is  indispensable  ;  and  the  continual  restoration  of 
these  substances,  in  some  form,  to  the  soil  as  fertilizers  cannot  be 
too  strongly  insisted  upon.  Lime  should  be  applied  by  sowing  it 
upon  the  clover  or  other  green  crop  turned  under  in  the  fall ;  in 
which  case  any  animal  manures  that  are  to  be  used  must  be  applied 
in  the  spring.  Decomposed  begasse  and  straw,  barn-yard  manure 
thoroughly  rotted  and  used  in  moderate  quantity,  guano  used  as  a 
top  dressing,  bone  dust,  ashes,  are  all  appropriate  as  fertilizers, 
when  well  incorporated  with  the  soil. 

For  a  long  time  the  idea  has  been  prevalent  that  all  mineral 
salts,  either  existing  in  or  added  to  the  soil,  except  in  very  meager 
quantity,  are  injurious  to  the  sugar.  This  is  true  only  in  certain 


4  SYSTEM   OF   MANUFACTURE. 

exceptional  cases,  and  it  is  possible  to  be  much  too  fastidious  and 
parsimonious  in  the  application  of  fertilizers  to  sugar  lands.  With 
the  soil  well  drained  and  in  good  physical  condition,  and  the  plant 
liberally  supplied  with  all  that  it  needs,  it  is  rare  that  it  takes  up  a 
large  excess  of  any  substance  deleterious  to  the  sugar.  The  best 
results  with  Chinese  cane  the  past  season  were  from  a  well  drained 
limestone  soil  enriched  with  thoroughly  decomposed  animal 
manure.  It  is  true  that  in  this  case  a  larger  proportion  of  azotized 
products  existed  in  the  juice  than  would  probably  have  been  found 
in  cane  yielding  a  half  crop  on  unenriched  land,  and  any  injurious 
effects  that  might  otherwise  have  been  produced  are  prevented  by 
the  new  process  of  defecation.  The  influence,  however,  of  the  am- 
moniac salts,  in  undue  quantity,  in  forming  a  large  proportion  of 
the  nitrogenous  compounds  in  the  juice  and  of  some  salts  of  potash 
in  hindering  crystallization  are  chiefly  to  be  guarded  against. 

It  has  been  proved  that  while  a  few  salts  do  hinder  crystalliza- 
tion, the  much  larger  proportion  of  those  introduced  during  the 
growth  of  the  plant  are  either  neutral  in  their  effect  or  promotive 
of  the  crystallization  of  the  sugar.* 

It  is  certain  that  judicious  manuring,  or,  in  other  words,  keeping 
up  the  fertility  of  a  naturally  rich  soil  by  the  supply  of  what  will 
compensate  for  the  annual  waste,  is  quite  as  necessary  as  in  any 
other  agricultural  operations.  In  fact,  the  stimulating  influence 
of  fertilizers  containing  nitrogen,  if  they  are  not  applied  in  exces- 
sive quantity,  promotes  early  growth,  increases  the  size  of  the 

*  A.  Marschall  has  studied  the  subject  of  the  influence  of  different  salts  on 
the  crystallization  of  sugar,  and  classifies  them  as  follows  : 
•-1.  Salts  favoring  crystallization:  Sodic  sulphate,  nitrate,  acetate  butyrate, 
valerate  arid  malate,   pctassic  aspartate,  magnesic  nitrate,  sulphate  and 
chloride,  calcic  nitrate  and  chloride. 

2.  Indifferent  salts,  (without  influence :)  Sodic  carbonate,  oxalate,  citrate 
and  aspartate,  potassic  sulphate,  nitrate  and  chloride,  calcic  hydrate. 

3.  Salts  preventing  crystallization,  and  consequently  favoring  the  formation 
of  molasses:  Potassic  carbonate,  acetate,  citrate  and  butyrate. 

Mugnesic  sulphate  promotes  the  crystallization  of  10  times,  magnesic  chlor- 
ide of  17  times,  calcic  chloride  of  7%  times  its  weight  of  sugar. — American 
Chemist,  ii,  406. 


GYPSUM.  43 

stems  and  very  markedly  increases  the  quantity  of  the  juice,  with- 
out affecting  the  sugar.  Even  if  the  percentage  of  sugar  in  the 
juice  of  canes  from  lands  so  fertilized  rates  somewhat  lower  than 
in  those  of  a  less  thrifty  growth,  the  yield  of  the  latter  in  sugar  is 
so  much  less  on  account  of  the  smaller  size  of  the  stems,  the 
smaller  percentage  of  juice  which  they  contain  and  the  greater 
resistance  which  they  present,  on  account  of  their  woodiness,  to  the 
expression  of  the  juice  by  the  mill,  as  to  present  the  most  marked 
contrast.  To  obtain  the  largest  quantity  of  sugar  at  the  least  cost 
should  be  the  main  object  of  the  planter  in  all  cases.  A  large 
growth  of  well-developed  canes  follows  the  application  in  moder- 
ate quantity  of  nitrogenous  manures  of  whatever  kind.  Upon  a 
decomposed  clover  sod  either  corn  or  cane  produces  heavy  crops, 
an  effect  no  doubt  due  largely  to  the  nitrogen  supplied.  Accord- 
ing to  Professor  Voelcker,  the  roots  alone  of  an  acre  of  clover  con- 
tain as  much  ammonia  as  800  pounds  of  guano.  The  effect  of  the 
cow-pea  (also  a  nitiogen-storing  plant)  when  plowed  in  as  green 
manure  on  the  sugar  lands  of  Louisiana,  is  similar  to  that  of  clover 
at  the  North. 

One  of  the  most  efficient  of  all  fertilizers  that  can  be  applied  to 
sorghum  is  gypsum — plaster  of  paris.  Many  years  ago  very  re- 
markable effects  resulting  from  its  use  were  detailed  by  Mr.  Harris, 
of  the  Genessee  Farmer  and  published  in  the  American  Agricul- 
turist, (vol.  21,  p.  361,)  in  which  it  was  shown  that  the  yield  of  cane 
on  land  heavily  plastered  was  increased  above  that  on  unmanured 
land  about  five-fold.  It  was  also  shown  that  superphosphate  of 
lime,  containing  50  per  cent,  of  sulphate  of  lime,  (plaster,)  applied 
in  larger  quantity,  produced  an  effect  second  only  to  that  of  plaster 
itself,  indicating  that  it  was  due  almost  solely  to  the  plaster  con- 
tained. These  experiments  have  not  since  been  repeated  with  the 
same  care  ;  but  enough  is  known  to  prove  that  the  application  of 
gypsum  may  be  made  in  the  highest  degree  beneficial  in  in- 
creasing the  yield.  Its  effect  is  m.ost  manifest  upon  soils  not  rich 
in  vegetable  matter,  especially  upon  clay  lands.  Also,  on  account 
of  its  difficult  solubility,  the  results  of  its  use  are  most  marked  in 
wet  seasons. 


44  SYSTEM   OF   MANUFACTURE. 

VII. 
SYSTEM  OP  MANUFACTURE. 

Yield  of  Cane  and  Corn— Proper  Distribution  so  as  to  Secure  a  Uniform  Yield 
—Preparation  for  Planting— ©ombined  Effect  of  Clover  and  Gypsum— 
Early  Cultivation— Influence  of  Lime  Soils— Advantages  of  a  Combined 
Crop— Harvesting— Proper  Period  for  Cutting— Preparation  of  Dried  Sweet 
Corn— Evil  Effects  of  the  Storing  of  Cane  or  Corn— Conversion  of  Sugar- 
Stripping— Protection  from  Sudden  Frost. 

The  proper  distribution  of  the  plants  on'  a  given  surface,  so  as 
to  obtain  the  largest  possible  amount  of  sugar-producing  material, 
well  developed  and  properly  matured  stems,  that  the  land  is  capa- 
ble of,  should  be  the  primary  object  of  the  planter.  The  additional 
labor  and  expense  required  to  enable  the  land  to  produce  two  gal- 
lons of  dense,  crystallizing  syrup  from  each  square  rod  above  what 
is  necessary  to  produce  one  gallon  on  the  same  surface,  is  really  so 
inconsiderable  as  to  be  a  matter  of  astonishment  to  those  who  for 
the  first  time  make  the  experiment.  Yet  the  difference  in  the  yield 
in  the  two  cases  amounts  to  more  than  half  a  ton  of  sugar  per  acre. 

In  planting,  it  is  well  to  retain  the  general  features  of  the  com- 
mon method,  but  to  lessen  the  distance  between  the  hills  so 
as  to  increase  the  "stand"  of  corn  or  cane  to  the  utmost  extent 
consistent  with  healthy  growth  and  development.  As  already  sug- 
gested, the  rows  (running  north  and  south)  may  be  three  feet 
apart,  (or  3£  feet  in  rich  soils,)  the  hills  20  inches  apart,  each  con- 
taining from  three  to  five  plants.  Thus,  from  three  to  five  pounds 
of  stripped  stems  may  readily  be  grown  to  the  hill.  If  the  main 
and  cross  rows  are  first  laid  out  with  accuracy  by  means  of  a 
marker,  making  a  shallow  furrow,  cross  cultivation  by  means  of 
an  implement  passing  between  two  or  three  of  the  rows  at  once  is 
always  practicable,  and  the  work  is  done  easier  and  better  than 
when  drill  planting  is  practiced. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say  that  before  marking  out  the  ground 
for  planting  the  soil  should  be  most  thoroughly  pulverized.  Given 
a  clover  sod  of  the  previous  year,  turned  under  when  in  full 
growth,  and  previously  heavily  plastered,  thoroughly  decomposed 


COMBINED    CANE   AND    CORN    CROP.  45 

and  lightly  re  plowed  and  well  harrowed  just  before  planting,  and 
we  have  a  seed-bed  for  cane  or  corn  upon  which,  with  due  care  in 
the  after  cultivation,  will  spring  a  crop  of  either  of  these  plants, 
which  for  luxuriance,  stateliness  and  value  is  unapproached  by  any 
other  rapid  vegetable  growth  of  a  temperate  clime. 

It  is  a  common  mistake  *o  plant  too  deeply — half  an  inch  of 
earth  over  the  seed  is  always  enough,  if  the  soil  is  moist  and  in  good 
condition. 

The  ground  should  be  stirred  as  soon  as  the  plants  are  well  up, 
by  working  close  to  the  hill*  on  all  sides  with  the  cultivator  and 
the  hand-hoe.  Horse-hoes  and  cultivators  should  be  provided  With 
a  shield  of  sheet-iron  at  the  side  to  prevent  the  loose  earth  from 
being  thrown  on  the  plants.  In  regard  to  sorghum  culture,  no 
fact  is  more  fully  established  than  that  the  early  stirring  of  the  soil 
around  the  young  plants,  commencing  even  before  they  can  be 
clearly  distinguishable  in  the  row,  is  in  the  highest  degree  condu- 
cive to  the  vigor  and  early  maturity  of  the  cane.  A  limed  or  nat- 
urally calcareous  soil,  which  has  a  peculiar  quickening  power  upon 
all  cultivated  crops,  efficient  drainage,  and  a  warm,  sunny  expos- 
ure, are  all  auxiliary  to  the  same  result.  The  continued  cultiva- 
tion of  cane,  however,  after  it  has  attained  a  height  of  two  or  three 
feet,  retards  development  by  destroying  the  roots,  which  by  that 
time  extend  a  net-work  of  fibers  through  every  part  of  the  soil.  . 

It  will  generally  be  found  most  advisable  in  sugar  production  to 
grow  a  crop  both  of  corn  and  cane,  for  the  reason  that  corn  comes 
to  maturity  for  this  purpose  generally  a  month  earlier  than  cane, 
because  the  same  system  of  working  is  adapted  to  both,  and  that  by 
combining  the  two,  the  working  season  may  be  extended  so  as  to 
cover  at  least  three  months.  The  proper  period  for  cutting  corn 
for  the  production  of  sugar,  when  it  is  a  double  or  triple  eared  va- 
riety, is  when  the  silk  of  the  upper ^ear  has  become  dead,  and  the 
second  ear  is  in  the  early  roasting-ear  state.  The  first  ear  will  have 
slightly  passed  that  condition  and  will  have  begun  to  harden  some- 
what. There  is  little  difference,  however,  in  the  yield  or  the  saccha- 
rine value  of  the  plant  from  the  time  the  first  ear  lias  its  grain  fully 
developed  until  the  last  ear  has  begun  to  harden — a  period  of  about 
two  weeks. 


46  SYSTEM   OF   MANUFACTURE. 

In  order,  however,  to  save  the  grain  in  its  best  condition  for  cur- 
ing, the  first  ears  should  be  removed  at  the  proper  time,  leaving 
the  rest  to  come  into  condition  before  cutting  and  blading  the 
stalk.  "Evergreen  sugar  corn,"  besides  some  other  prominent 
advantages,  continues  in  season  about  three  weeks.  In  the  latitude 
of  Philadelphia  and  St.  Louis,  the  grinding  season  will  begin  regu- 
larly the  first  week  in  August. 

One  month  later,  or  from  the  1st  to  the  10th  of  September,  the 
early  amber  cane  and  the  new  Chinese  hybrid  \v  ill  be  in  condi- 
tion, if  planted  early  in  May.  The  imphee  or  Gaffer  canes  may  be 
worked  up  from  the  time  the  flower  has  made  its  appearance  until 
the  seed  is  ripe ;  the  Chinese  variety  from  the  time  the  glumes  or 
external  seed  envelopes  begin  to  darken  in  color  until  the  seed  is 
perfectly  ripe.  On  account  of  the  slower  development  of  the 
large-stemmed  imphees,  the  Chinese  cane  will  generally  be  ready 
first. 

In  the  case  of  corn,  the  ears  may  be  removed  a  week  before  the 
stems  are  cut,  without  detriment  to  the  sugar.  When  the  grain  of 
sugar  corn  is  to  be  dried  for  market,  no  time  must  be  lost  until  it 
is  properly  cured.  After  being  boiled  or  steamed  for  about  five 
minutes,  it  should  be  removed  from  the  cob  by  cutting  instruments, 
operated  by  machinery,  and  then  dried  as  rapidly  as  possible  in 
shallow  trays  or  pans,  placed  over  flues,  or  steam  heated,  or  heated 
on  perforated  plates,  and  constantly  stirred.  In  from  four  to  six 
hours  it  will  be  thoroughly  dried,  if  the  temperature  is  maintained 
at,  but  not  allowed  to  exceed,  the  highest  point  at  which  the  grain 
remains  uncolored  by  the  heat.  If  the  operation  is  properly  man- 
aged, the  dried  corn  should  be  as  free  from  color  as  when  cut  from 
the  cob.  In  the  retail  markets  this  corn  bears  about  the  same 
price  as  brown  sugar.  As  a  secondary  product,  its  manufacture 
would  bs  profitable  at  less  than  half  that  rate.  It  should  be  packed 
in  barrels,  when  dry,  and  the  barrels  headed  up. 

This  grain  is  nearly  equal  to  green  corn,  fresh  from  the  field,  and 
in  its  nutritive  properties  and  capacity  to  fill  a  place  otherwise 
unoccupied  as  an  article  of  diet,  it  is  a  most  important  product. 
In  its  nature  and  uses  it  is  very  different  from  the  ripened  grain. 
This  difference  is  so  great  that  it  may  be  said  that  we  are  thus 


IMPORTANT   FACTS.  47 

enabled  practically  to  produce  at  will  two  different  varieties  of 
grain  from  the  same  plant.  The  popular  demand  for  dried  sweet 
corn,  both  in  our  own  country  and  in  Europe,  will  always  render 
its  production  a  valuable  adjunct  to  sugar  manufacture  from 
maize.  (See  analysis,  &c.,  Appendix.) 

I  must  refer  here  to  an  error  into  which  operators  are  likely  to 
fall,  which  has  been  in  accordance  with  the  general  practice  of  sor- 
ghum-growers hitherto,  but  which  cannot  be  too  strongly  con- 
demned. There  is  now  the  most  certain  evidence  to  show  that  a 
profound  modification  of  the  juices  of  these  plants,  setting  in  at  the 
base  of  the  stem  and  gradually  progressing  upward,  begins  to  take 
place  within  a  very  few  hours  after  they  have  been  cut  from  the 
ground.  The  storing  of  cane  for  considerable  periods  before  it 
is  to  be  worked  up  has  been  a  common  practice  heretofore,  but 
the  transformation -and  loss  of  a  part  and  finally  of  the  whole  of 
the  crystallizable  sugar  is  the  uniform  result.  Therefore,  it  must 
be  insisted  upon  as  a  general  rule  that  both  corn  and  cane  should 
be  worked  up  within,  at  most,  from  twenty-four  to  forty-eight  hours 
from  the  time  of  their  being  cut  in  the  field.  In  other  words,  the 
successive  operations  of  beading,  topping,  cutting,  removal  from 
the  field,  extraction  of  the  juice,  defecation,  evaporation  and  crys- 
tallization should  follow  each  other  without  any  loss  of  time.  The 
contact  of  the  freshly-expressed  juice,  in  the  unsophisticated  state, 
with  the  air  is  extremely  injurious  if  prolonged  for  more  than  an 
hour  or  two.  There  is  no  point  in  all  these  successive  stages  of 
work  at  which  it  will  be  safe  to  suspend  it  or  to  take  rest  until  the 
defecated  syrup  has  reached  a  density  of  25°  to  30°  Beaume. 

Store  room,  therefore,  need  be  provided  for  only  such  an  amount 
of  canes  as  can  be  worked  up  in  a  single  day.  The  crushing  mill 
should  have  sufficient  capacity  to  extract  with  ease  the  juice  of  a 
considerably  greater  amount  of  corn  or  cane  than  has  been  appor- 
tioned regularly  to  one  day's  work. 

The  stripping  off  of  the  blades  of  either  cane  or  corn  should  be 
performed  immediately  before  the  cutting  and  grinding  of  the 
stems.  The  ears  of  corn  may  be  removed,  however,  several  clays 
previous  to  the  time  of  cutting  down  the  stalks  without  damage  to 
ttoe  juice,  if  the  blades  are  left  on.  The  stripping  of  cane  is  some- 


48  SYSTEM    OP   MANUFACTURE. 

times  entirely  dispensed  with ;  this  neglect,  however,  is  somewhat 
wasteful,  and  has  nothing  to  recommend  it  except  the  saving  of 
the  labor  necessary  in  the  operation  of  stripping  itself.  The  latter 
is  very  much  lessened  by  striking  off  the  blades  of  the  standing 
cane  with  a  staff  or  flat,  sword-shaped  wooden  implement.  The 
value  of  the  fodder  saved  and  the  loss  of  juice  prevented  by  strip- 
ping will,  no  doubt  in  most  cases,  more  than  compensate  for  the 
expense  of  doing  it.  Still,  it  does  not  appear  that  the  quality  of 
the  juice  is  perceptibly  impaired  by  passing  the  blades  (which  are 
then  almost  sapless)  through  the  mill  along  with  the  stems.  The 
evil  is  in  the  absorbing  of  a  portion  of  the  juice  by  the  compara- 
tively dry  mass  of  blades. 

It  sometimes  happens  that  the  later-planted  corn  or  late  matur- 
ing canes  are  exposed  to  sudden  danger  from  an  early  frost.  The 
effect  of  a  heavy  frost  upon  a  standing  crop  of  sorghum  cane  is 
more  damaging  to  its  juice  than  to  that  of  corn  similarly  exposed. 
But  in  both  a  peculiar  process  of  decomposition  speedily  sets  in  and 
crystallization  is  made  impossible.  As  a  partial  prevention  of  the 
evil  the  standing  cane  should  be  immediately  cut  down  without 
loss  of  time,  and  in  this  case  the  blades  should  not  be  stripped  off, 
as  they  serve  to  protect  the  cane  in  the  windrow  from  sun  and  cold 
and  undue  evaporation.  The  mode  of  protecting  cane  by  win- 
drowing  consists  simply  in  depositing  it  lengthwise  in  a  long,  nar- 
row, compact  row,  the  butts  resting  on  the  ground,  and  each  suc- 
cessive bundle  of  canes  overlapping  the  preceding  one,  and 
inclined  backward  upon  it,  so  as  to  leave  only  the  tops  exposed 
throughout  the  whole  length  of  the  row.  But  in  the  manufacture 
of  sugar  from  these  plants  no  dependence  is  to  be  placed  upon  this 
or  any  other  arrangement  for  their  preservation  beyond  two  or  three 
days  after  the  stems  are  cut  down.  By  this  method  protection 
from  frost  is  in  a  great  measure  secured,  but  not  from  the  destruc- 
tive power  of  the  atmosphere  commencing  at  the  base  of  the  cut 
stem.  So  insidious  is  the  influence  by  which  the  conversion  of  the 
crystallizable  sugar  takes  place  as  it  extends  from  joint  to  joint, 
that  it  is  not  manifest  in  any  change  in  the  appearance  or  flavor  of 
the  juice  or  of  the  syrup  made  from  it,  and  it  is  only  when  the  at- 
tempt is  made  to  crystallize  the  sugar,  or  when  the  proper  chemical 
tests  are  applied,  that  we  realize  what  has  occurred. 


SUGAR   MACHINERY.  49 


VIII. 
SUGAR  MACHINERY. 

Inapplicability  of  the  System  of  Maceration  and  Percolation  for  Extraction 
of  these  Juices— Loss  from  Inefficiency  of  Mills— Capacity  of  Mills,  how 
Increased— Results  of  Repressing  of  Corn  and  Sorghum— Practical  Sugges- 
tions—Expression of  the  Juice— Arrangement  of  Tanks— Evaporating  Ap- 
paratus—Forms  of  Finishing  Pan— Stirring  Instrument— The  Cooler— Crys- 
tallizing Boxes— Adaptation  of  Existing  Machinery— Future  Requirements- 
Importance  of  the  Chemical  Treatment. 

For  the  extraction  of  the  juice  of  the  southern  sugar  cane,  no 
other  means  yet  devised  at  all  compares  in  practical  efficiency  with 
the  well  known  iron  crushing  mill.  The  vegetable  structure  of 
both  maize  and  sorghum  is  so  nearly  similar  to  that  of  the  sugar 
cane  as  to  suggest  the  use,  as  applied  to  them,  of  the  same  me- 
chanical means  for  the  same  general  purpose. 

Yet  the  inefficiency  of  the  mills  in  sugar  manufacture  from  cane, 
the  world  over,  has  ever  been  a  cause  of  complaint,  and  has  really 
been  a  source  of  great  loss. 

Since  the  introduction  of  sorghum  into  the  United  States,  lighter 
forms  of  crushing  mills — those  adapted  to  steam  power  differing 
in  nothing  except  size  from  the  southern  plantation  mill — have 
everywhere  come  into  general  use. 

In  the  manufacture  of  sugar  from  cane  the  chipping  of  the  stem 
into  fine  fragments,  and  the  subsequent  extraction  of  the  saccha- 
rine matter  by  maceration  and  percolation,  has  been  experimented 
upon,  but  independently  of  the  mechanical  difficulties  that  present 
themselves  to  the  success  of  this  method  there  are  objections  of  a 
far  more  formidable  kind  to  it,  as  applied  to  maize  and  sorghum, 
in  the  inability  of  the  more  complex  and  delicately  organized  juices 
of  these  plants  to  withstand  the  effects  of  such  treatment.  (See 
Appendix  B.) 

It  would  seem,  however,  that  the  softer  texture  of  the  stem  of 
sorghum,  and  especially  of  corn,  should  enable  us  to  reduce  the 
waste  of  the  juice  in  milling  to  a  small  amount.  The  fresh,  un- 


50  SUGAR   MACHINERY. 

dried  stems  of  corn  or  sorghum  contain  about  85  per  cent,  of  their 
weight  of  saccharine  juice.  The  ordinary  crushing  mills  extract 
but  50  to  60  per  cent,  of  the  weight  of  the  stalk.  Most  of  the 
lighter  class  of  mills  do  not  average  more  than  50  per  cent.  A  per- 
fect machine  would  produce  83  per  cent.  If  in  practice  but  50 
pounds  in  100  are  obtained,  35  pounds,  or  more  than  41  per  cent, 
of  the  whole  amount  of  juice  originally  contained  in  the  stalk,  is 
discharged  with  the  begasse. 

We  have  thus  revealed  the  astonishing  fact  that  about  five- 
twelfths  of  the  crude  material  is  thus  utterly  wasted  at  the  outset, 
in  consequence  of  the  imperfect  means  ordinarily  used  in  attempting 
to  extract  it.  It  is  true  that  the  best  mills  may  be  abused  by  grind- 
ing at  too  high  a  rate  of  speed,  yet  this  is  very  commonly  done. 
Good  results  are  obtained  by  mill  rolls,  which  develop  a  surface  of 
four  to  five  yards  in  length  per  minute,  so  that  a  roll  of  two  feet 
diameter  should  make  but  from  two  to  two  and  one-half  revolu- 
tions per  minute  in  order  to  extract  the  largest  amount  of  j  uice 
from  a  given  weight  of  canes.  Any  increase  in  the  capacity  of  the 
mill  that  is  required  may  easily  be  obtained  by  increasing  the 
length  of  the  rolls  and  not  their  velocity.  In  the  case  of  common 
mills  of  small  power,  a  largely  increased  yield  of  juice  will  follow 
the  repressing  of  either  corn  or  cane.  If  the  loss  of  time  incurred 
in  this  be  urged  as  an  objection,  it  may  be  replied  that  there  is  no 
waste  of  material  in  sugar  manufacture  that  is  justifiable  if  it  can 
bs  prevented,  and  that  there  is  none  so  utterly  inexcusable  as  that 
caused  by  a  failure  to  extract  all  the  juice  practically  separable, 
after  a  previous  expenditure  of  time  and  labor  in  producing  the 
crop,  which  is  just  as  great  when  the  canes  are  half  extracted  of 
their  juice  as  when  they  are  wholly  so.  The  difference  between 
the  product  of  an  efficient  and  an  inefficient  mill  may  thus  be 
almost  equal  to  the  difference  between  a  half  and  a  full  crop. 

As  has  already  been  said,  the  successful  working  of  the  new 
process  can  be  tested  by  using  apparatus  already  at  hand  in  most 
parts  of  the  country,  or  at  least  by  the  addition  to  the  common 
machinery  of  perhaps  one  or  two  inexpensive  parts.  It  will  not 
bo  necessary,  therefore,  to  occupy  the  reader's  time  with  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  construction,  mode  of  using,  or  comparative  merits  or  de- 


SUGAR    MILLS.  51 

fects  of  sugar  machinery  now  in  use.  It  is  taken  for  granted  that 
the  present  owners  of  such  machinery,  or  those  who  may  supply 
themselves  to  make  the  experiment  with  such  apparatus  as  is  now 
furnished  by  any  of  the  prominent  manufacturers,  will  have  the 
good  sense  to  adapt  the  machinery-  they  use,  as  far  as  possible,  to 
the  requirements  of  this  process,  as  hereinafter  described,  instead 
of  giving  the  precedence  to  certain  special  uses  under  the  old 
methods  which  the  machinery  may  perhaps  have  been  particularly 
designed  to  serve.  If  the  operator  will  dismiss  from  his  mind, 
for  the  time  being,  all  preconceived  opinions  and  theories  of  work- 
ing which  he  finds  to  be  at  variance  with  the  simple  routine  here 
prescribed,  and  especially  with  the  chemical  treatment  of  the  juice, 
much  time  and  useless  labor  will  be  saved.  On  the  other  hand, 
so  much  is  already  known  as  to  the  practical  management  of  the 
common  forms  of  sugar  mills  and  evaporators,  that,  until  appara- 
tus adapted  to  the  demands  of  a  large  and  permanent  business  shall 
be  called  into  existence,  little  need  be  said  of  them  in  detail. 
Equally  out  of  place  at  present  would  be  specifications  of  suggested 
but  not  yet  perfected  mechanical  improvements,  to  which  pecu- 
liarities in  the  chemical  treatment  have  given  rise. 

In  the  arrangement  of  the  works,  the  mill  should  be  placed  upon 
a  sufficient  elevation  to  allow  the  juice  to  flow  from  it  by  a  pipe 
into  the  defecating  tanks,  hereafter  described,  and  from  them 
into  the  evaporating  apparatus  as  required.  A  strainer  of  wire 
gauze  should  be  placed  at  the  outlet  of  the  receiving  tank  at  the 
mill  to  arrest  any  of  the  coarser  impurities,  such  as  fragments  of  cane, 
pith,  &c.,  that  may  be  floating  in  the  juice. 

Two  heating  tanks  of  equal  capacity — 100  gallons  or  more  each — 
to  be  used  alternately,  are  to  be  so  placed  as  to  receive  the  juice  as 
it  flows  from  the  mill,  and  at  such  an  elevation  as  to  empty  readily 
into  a  broad,  cooling  tank,  which  supplies  the  evaporator  directly. 

The  tank  last  named  may  be  made  entirely  of  two-inch  plank, 
closely  jointed — 15  to  20  inches  in  depth,  and  of  a  capacity  equal  to 
that  of  the  two  heating  tanks  combined.  The  latter  may  be  en- 
tirely of  metal,  (copper  preferred,)  or  they  may  have  bottoms  of 
sheet-copper  or  tinned-iron  and  upright  wooden  sides,  and  placed 
over  the.  flue  of  a  separate  furnace  in  small  works ,  or  they  may 


52  SUGAR    MACHINERY. 

be  heated  by  a  steam  coil  or  jacket — which  is  preferable — in  order 
that  the  ebullition  of  the  juice  may  be  immediately  checked  when 
the  scum  has  perfectly  formed  on  the  surface.  If  they  are  to  be  heat- 
ed over  an  open  fire,  there  should  be  an  arrangement  for  throwing 
off  the  heat  into  another  flue,  by  means  of  a  damper,  when  the 
proper  temperature  has  been  reached.  It  is  convenient  to  have 
these  heaters  each  large  enough  to  contain  as  much  juice  as  is  re- 
ceived from  the  mill  in  one  hour. 

The  evaporator  may  be  of  any  required  capacity — preferably 
with  a  sheet-copper  bottom,  tinned-iron  will  answer — and  of  any 
of  the  best  forms  now  in  use  in  the  sorghum-syrup  manufacture, 
provided  that  its  construction  admits  of  a  continued  descent  or  flow 
from  one  compartment  to  another  of  a  thin  sheet  of  juice  over  a 
large,  heated,  evaporating  surface,  with  convenient  arrangements 
for  the  removal  of  the  scum  which  forms  immediately  after  the 
juice  enters  it.  It  is  rarely  the  case  that  the  form  of  the  evapora- 
tor will  admit  of  the  syrup  being  reduced  in  it  to  the  finishing 
point.  Instead  of  attempting  to  do  this,  it  is  much  better  to  have 
a  small  furnace  detached,  over  which  a  plain,  flat  copper  or  per- 
fectly smooth  and  clean  iron  pan  is  placed,  or  it  may  be  so  con- 
structed as  to  be  heated  by  a  steam  jacket.  If  heated  over  a  flue, 
the  most  convenient  finisher,  perhaps,  is  a  tilt  pan.  A  suitable  size 
is  three  or  four  feet  in  length  and  breadth,  and  eight  to  ten  inches 
in  height,  the  sides  vertical,  and  the  bottom  perfectly  smooth  and 
flat.  It  should  be  placed  upon  a  flue  or  arch,  the  diameter  of  which 
externally  is  a  little  less  on  all  sides  than  that  of  the  pan,  if  the 
walls  of  the  furnace  are  not  very  thick.  From  the  middle  of  one 
of  the  sides  of  tliis  finisher  extends  a  broad  beak  or  lip,  inclined 
gradually  upward  from  the  bottom  of  the  pan,  and  projecting  a  foot 
beyond  the  furnace  wall.  From  the  corners  of  the  side  to  which  the 
beak  is  attached  project  two  short  iron  pins  or  gudgeons,  forming  the 
extremities  of  the  axis  of  the  pan,  upon  which  it  turns.  These 
enter  sockets  or  staples  securely  imbedded  in  the  furnace  wall  itself 
or  in  timbers  placed  directly  outside  of  it.  To  a  ring  on  the  middle 
of  the  side  opposite  to  that  from  which  the  beak  projects  a  short  chain 
is  fastened,  and  secured  at  its  other  extremity  to  the  short  arm  of  a 
lever,  pivoted  to  the  head  of  an  upright  post,  set  in  the  ground,  a 


FINISHING    PAN.  53 

few  inches  in  the  rear  of  the  pan.  By  bearing  upon  the  long  arm 
of  the  lever,  at  any  time,  the  whole  contents  of  the  pan  may  be 
instantly  dumped  into  a  cooler,  placed  below  the  projecting  beak. 
A  damper  should  be  so  arranged  as  to  throw  the  heat  at  any  time 
into  a  lower  flue,  particularly  when  the  pan  is  tilted. 

If  steam  is  used  to  heat  the  finishing  pan,  the  use  of  the  tilting 
apparatus  may  be  dispensed  with,  but  in  this  case  the  heat  should 
be  applied  by  means  of  a  steam  space  or  jacket  underneath,  and 
not  by  a  coil,  to  prevent  inconvenience  by  the  adhesion  of  the  dense 
heated  syrup  to  the  pipes.  In  connection  with  this  vessel  a  sharp- 
edged,  wooden  scraper  should  be  used,  consisting  simply  of  aboard 
of  hard  wood,  four  or  five  inches  in  width,  and  of  a  length  slightly 
less  than  the  width  of  the  pan,  pierced  with  holes  of  half  an  inch 
or  an  inch  in  diameter,  and  attached  by  its  middle  to  a  handle  of 
three  or  four  feet  in  length,  set  at  right  angles  to  it.  This  instru- 
ment is  to  be  moved  back  and  forth  over  the  whole  bottom  of  the 
pan  during  the  last  two  or  three  minutes  of  the  concentration  of 
the  syrup. 

The  cooler  into  which  the  finishing  pan  discharges  may  be  simply 
a  close  jointed,  wooden  tank,  broad  and  flat,  and  capable  of  con- 
taining the  successive  batches  of  crystallizing  syrup  produced  dur- 
ing half  a  day's  or  a  day's  boiling.  Two  of  these  boxes  should  be 
provided,  to  be  used  alternately.  These,  as  they  are  filled,  are  to 
be  emptied  into  the  crystallizing  vessels,  which  maybe  of  any  con- 
venient size  and  shape,  in  which  provision  for  drainage  is  secured. 
They  are  placed  in  a  close  apartment  near  by,  the  temperature  of 
which  is  kept  up  to  about  80°  to  90°  Fahrenheit. 

For  experimental  purposes,  tubs  or  half  barrels,  with  movable, 
plugs  in  the  bottom,  with  false  bottoms  of  slats  fitted  inside,  cov- 
ered with  coarse  sacking,  may  be  used  as  crystallizing  vessels ;  but 
of  a  better  form,  and  scarcely  more  expensive,  are  wooden  boxes 
of  about  five  feet  in  length  by  three  in  width,  the  bottoms  formed  of 
two  planes  inclined  six  inches,  their  intersection  forming  a  groove 
in  the  middle.  In  this  groove  are  twelve  or  fifteen  holes  of  an 
inch  in  diameter  to  permit  the  syrup  to  flow  out,  but  temporarily 
closed  with  plugs  abruptly  pointed,  and  projecting  inside  two  or 
three  inches.  The  depth  is  nine  inches  at  the  sides  and  sixteen 


54  SUGAR   MACHINERY. 

inches  at  the  center.  These  vessels  may  be  made  of  boards  one 
inch  thick,  cemented  at  the  joints  with  white  load,  or  litharge  and 
glycerine  cement,  and  burned  out  with  a  hot  iron  inside,  so  as  to 
form  a  sloping  cavity,  surrounding  the  openings,  for  drainage. 
These  vessels  when  filled  to  within  three  inches  of  the  top  will  hold 
about  75  gallons  of  syrup  for  granulation.  They  should  be  sup- 
ported upon  open  timbers,  above  gutters  connected  with  a  cistern 
on  a  lower  level,  to  receive  the  molasses  as  it  drips  from  the  sugar. 
This  form  of  crystallizing  box  originated  with  Dutronela  Couture,* 
one  of  the  most  eminent  names  connected  with  sugar  manufacture 
from  the  southern  cane  during  the  last  century,  and  it  may  still  be 
recommended  for  this  purpose  as  combining  almost  every  possible 
advantage  in  crystallizing  and  draining  with  the  requisite  strength, 
at  least  when  natural  drainage  is  relied  upon  for  purging  the  sugar. 
The  number  of  these  boxes,  or  of  some  suitable  substitute  for 
them,  that  will  be  required  will,  of  course,  depend  upon  the  amount 
of  work  to  be  done. 

It  is  convenient  to  have  the  cooler  mounted  upon  a  small  truck, 
to  run  from  one  side  of  the  finisher  into  the  crystallizing  room, 
where  it  is  to  be  emptied. 

The  simple  apparatus  above  described,  together  with  a  Beaume's 
sj-rup  hydrometer  and  a  pair  of  good  thermometers — one  of  which 
is  kept  immersed  in  the  tank  into  which  the  heaters  discharge — is 
all  that  is  indispensable  for  the  production  of  a  good  quality  of 
sugar  from  these  plants  by  this  process.  Most  of  the  machinery 
that  is  required  is  already  in  use  or  has  been  employed  within  the 
past  few  years  in  every  State  in  the  Union.  The  requirements  of 
capital  working  on  the  large  scale  will  necessitate  ere  long  the  in- 
troduction of  the  most  perfect  and  permanent  forms  that  can  be 
adapted  to  the  purpose ;  but  the  essential  features  of  the  work 
on  every  scale  of  magnitude  will  remain  the  same ;  for  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  it  is  upon  the  peculiar  chemical  treatment  of 
the  juice  that  success  almost  entirely  depends. 

*  Quoted  by  McCulloh,  report,  p.  286.  Precis  sur  la.  Canne>  p.  184,  Paris, 
1790. 


CRYSTALLIZATION.  55 


IX. 
CBYSTALLIZATION. 

Obstacles  to  Crystallization— Nature  of  the  Difficulties  to  be  Overcome— 
Inapplicability  of  Old  Processes — General  Features  of  New  Process — Means 
Employed— Chemical  Reactions—  Process  of  Manufacture— Use  of  the  Heat- 
ing Tanks— First  Stage  of  Process— Second  Stage— Action  of  "  Solution  B"— 
Characteristics  of  Purified  Juice — Finishing. 

It  now  only  remains  to  particularize  the  different  steps  in  the 
system  to  be  pursued  and  to  explain  as  briefly  as  possible  the  prin- 
ciples upon  which  they  are  founded. 

The  whole  subject  of  the  extraction  of  sugar  from  these  sources 
is  fraught  with  interest  at  every  point  of  view.  Especially  is  this 
so  when  we  come  to  regard  closely  the  peculiarities  of  these  juices 
themselves.  At  the  first  view  it  might  seem  that  the  art  of  extract- 
ing sugar  from  liquids  so  rich  in  it  as  these  have  now  proved  to  be 
ought  not  to  be  a  matter  of  much  difficulty  in  practice ;  but  its 
apparent  simplicity  disappears  when  it  is  found  that  these  two  sac- 
charine liquids  constitute  a  distinct  class  by  themselves,  and  that 
they  contain,  intimately  associated  with  the  sugar,  a  variety  of 
other  substances  of  very  different  chemical  properties  and  rela- 
tions, some  of  them  among  the  most  unstable  of  all  organic  bodies. 
Most  of  these  substances,  incapable  of  crystallization  themselves, 
prevent  by  their  presence  the  sugar  from  assuming  the  crystalline 
form,  the  only  form  in  which  it  can  be  obtained  pure.  In  order 
that  we  may  produce  sugar,  therefore,  it  is  necessary  first  either  to 
remove  these  extraneous  substances  from  the  saccharine  solution, 
or  by  some  chemical  agency  so  to  change  their  form  and  character- 
istics that  although  present  in  the  solution  they  will  present  no 
barrier  to  the  crystallization  of  the  associated  sugar.  In  this  case 
it  has  been  necessary  to  employ  media  operating  in  both  these 
ways. 

But  the  means  used  for  these  purposes  must  be  well  chosen. 
They  must  be  adequate.  They  must  be  of  such  a  kind  as  to  be 
adapted  to  common  use  on  the  large  scale  ;  the  defecating  agents 


56  CRYSTALLIZATION. 

must  be  perfectly  harmless  if  added  inadvertently  in  excess  to  the 
juice,  and  must  leave  no  harmful  compounds  in  any  product  which 
is  afterwards  to  be  used  as  an  article  of  diet ;  they  must  be  suffi- 
ciently convenient  in  form  and  low  in  price,  and  they  must  not 
exert  any  prejudicial  influence  upon  the  sugar  itself. 

In  a  problem  of  this  kind  nothing  good  can  be  accomplished  at 
hap-hazard.  A  strict  adherence  to  system  is  necessary  to  practical 
success ;  but  it  must  be  a  system  in  which  the  means  employed 
are  commensurate  with  clearly  defined  ends. 

Lack  of  information  of  an  exact  kind  upon  some  of  the  most 
important  points  has  led  some  persons,  whom  a  little  investigation 
would  have  taught  better,  to  adopt  expensive  and  in  this  case  use- 
less methods  of  treating  sorghum,  borrowed  from  the  beet  and 
cane-sugar  manufacture  of  France  and  Louisiana,  which  in  the 
end  they  have  been  compelled  to  abandon  after  much  disappoint- 
ment and  loss.  It  is  fortunate  that  at  this  time  not  only  that  both 
corn  and  sorghum  are  adapted  to  a  single  general  mode  of  treat- 
ment, but  that  the  peculiarities  of  no  known  varieties  of  either  are 
sufficiently  marked  to  require  any  considerable  deviation  from  an 
established  routine  ;  provided  that  such  due  care  be  taken  to  pre- 
vent deterioration  of  the  juice  as  has  already  been  shown  to  be 
necessary. 

The  complete  defecation  of  the  juice  as  now  accomplished  by 
this  process  consists  of  two  stages.  The  first  is  preparatory  and 
secures  what  has  long  been  a  desideratum  in  the  clarification  of 
juices  containing  both  glucose  and  sugar,  the  important  auxiliary 
aid  of  lime  in  excess,  to  the  fullest  extent  of  its  action,  with  heat,  in 
removing  certain  substances  from  the  solution,  without  any  injury 
to  the  sug  ir.  The  second  leaves  it  free  from  the  special  hindrances 
to  crystallization,  and  the  reaction  of  the  chemical  substances  pre- 
viously introduced  upon  the  impurities  and  upon  each  other  is  such 
that  the  final  purification  is  complete.* 

The  series  of  chemical  changes  produced  in  the  juice  follow  the 
addition  to  it  at  proper  times  and  in  graduated  quantities  of  two 
standard  solutions,  which  for  brevity  I  shall  designate  respectively 

*  The  facts  connected  with  the  discovery  upon  which  this  process  is  based, 
the  reader  will  find  detailed  in  Appendix  B. 


DEFECATION.  57 

as  solutions  A  and  B.  Solution  A  consists  principally  of  a  con- 
centrated liquid  saccharate  of  lime.  It  is  of  standard  strength  and 
produces  uniform  results.  In  cases  in  which  it  cannot  be  produced, 
milk  of  lime  may  be  used  in  its  place,  but  with  the  disadvantage 
that  the  strength  of  the  mixture  is  extremely  variable,  the  lime 
being  chiefly  suspended  in  water  instead  of  dissolved.  In  the  prep- 
aration of  it,  lime  of  the  best  quality  should  be  used,  carefully 
slaked  and  washed  afterwards  with  a  large  volume  of  boiling  water 
to  remove  any  potash  that  it  may  contain,  lime  itself  being  but 
slightly  soluble  in  hot  water.  After  slaking  the  lime,  pour  hot 
water  upon  it  in  a  capacious  vessel ;  stir  it  thoroughly  and  allow 
the  lime  to  subside.  The  water  must  then  be  poured  off";  the 
coarser  particles  of  the  sediment  containing  sand  and  other  impuri- 
ties will  subside  first  and  occupy  the  bottom  of  the  vessel.  The 
fine  sediment  only  should  be  used,  mixed  with  water,  to  bring 
it  to  about  the  consistence  of  cream. 

Taking  the  capacity  of  the  heating  tanks  to  be  100  gallons  each  be- 
tween the  level  of  a  mark  made  on  the  side  six  inches  from  the  top 
and  the  level  of  the  exit-cock  near  the  bottom,  we  begin  by  filling 
one  of  the  tanks  up  to  the  mark,  and  then  turn  the  flow  of  juice 
from  the  supply  pipe  into  the  other ;  100  gallons  is  a  convenient 
measure  of  juice,  and  can  be  reduced  to  the  proper  density  on  an 
evaporator  and  finisher  of  moderate  capacity  in  one  horn*.  Heat 
should  be  applied  rapidly  as  soon  as  the  juice  begins  to  oMer  the 
tank,  and  when  it  has  been  filled  up  to  the  mark,  and  the  tempera- 
ture of  the  liquid  has  risen  to  about  180°  F.,  or  a  point  hardly  endur- 
able by  the  hand  immersed  in  it,  add  to  it  about  five  pints  of  strong 
milk  of  lime  if  the  juice  is  that  of  corn,  or  seven  pints  if  it  is  sor- 
ghum. Stir  it  thoroughly ;  bring  up  the  heat  to  the  boiling  point 
and  shut  it  off,  and  remove  quickly  with  a  large  skimmer  the 
blanket  of  scum  formed. 

Allow  the  liquid  to  rest  a  few  minutes  to  permit  the  suspended 
flocculencies  to  subside  somewhat ;  without  waiting,  however,  for 
this  to  be  accomplished  perfectly,  commence  to  draw  oft'  by  means* 
of  a  siphon  or  swing-pipe  the  upper  portion  of  the  liquid  into  the 
tank  below,  and  finally  the  lower  stratum  down  to  the  muddy  sedi- 


58  CRYSTALLIZATION. 

ment,  which  may  then  be  swept  out  by  a  stroke  or  two  of  a  coarse 
broom,  through  a  large  pipe  or  gate  at  the  bottom,  into  a  long  bag 
strainer. 

The  tank  is  then  to  be  refilled  as  before,  while  its  companion  is 
being  exhausted.  At  this  stage  of  the  process  the  juice  is  strongly 
alkaline,  and  of  a  light  wine  color. 

A  thermometer  is  kept  immersed  in  the  tank  supplied  by  the 
heaters,  and  as  soon  as  the  temperature  of  the  liquid  has  fallen  to 
about  150°  F.,  five  pints  of  the  solution  B  are  to  be  poured  into  it 
if  it  contains  the  contents  of  one  of  the  heaters,  or  in  that  propor- 
tion. 

The  peculiar  chemical  reactions  induced  in  these  juices  at  this 
stage  of  the  process  may  briefly  be  described  as  follows  :  Previous 
to  the  addition  of  solution  B  to  the  juice  the  latter  had  received 
the  full  benefit  of  the  action  of  heat  and  lime  both  separate  and 
combined.  Some  pernicious  substances  are  thus  separated  in  the 
insoluble  form,  the  removal  of  which  could  not  be  effected  by  lime 
in  smaller  doses  or  readily  by  other  means.  But  new  compounds 
are,  at  the  same  time,  formed  in  the  liquid,  or  are  in  process  of 
formation,  which  would  exert  a  still  more  injurious  effect  upon  the 
sugar  through  the  associated  glucose  than  the  bodies  which  they 
supplant.  The  introduction  of  solution  B  at  this  point  arrests  this 
action,  and  its  effects  are  manifested — 

1.  In  the  preservation  of  both  sugar  and  glucose  from  decompo- 
sition, and  from  the  production  of  a  dark  red  coloring  matter  which 
is  the  visible  evidence  of  such  decomposition.    The  benefit  of  this 
action  will  perhaps  be  better  appreciated  from  the  fact  that  by  it 
bone-black  filtration  is  entirely  dispensed  with. 

2.  The  neutralization  of  the  excess  of  lime  is  accomplished  far 
more  perfectly  than  by  the  use  of  carbonic  acid  and  much  more 
easily  and  cheaply.    Hence,  independent  of  its  inappropriateness 
otherwise    as  applied   to  these  juices,    carbonatation  is  dropped, 
which,  as  is  well  known,  is  so  essential  a  part  of  the  beet-sugar 
processes,  and  which  has  heretofore  been  found  to  be  necessary  in 
all  processes,  whenever  a  large  excess  of  lime  is  used. 

3.  The  separation  in  an  insoluble  form  of  a  previously  dissolved 


CHEMICAL   ACTION   OF   SOLUTION   B.  59 

and  pernicious  nitrogenous  body  associated  with  a  peculiar  fatty 
substance.  These  separate  in  curdy  flocks,  forming  a  broken, 
greasy  pellicle  upon  the  boiling  liquid.  Without  following  out 
these  changes  further,  at  present,  it  may  be  said  that  the  removal 
of  these  substances  takes  away  the  last  hindrances  to  crystalliza- 
tion. 

After  the  separation  of  the  characteristic  scum,  which  forms 
almost  as  soon  as  the  juice,  treated  as  already  described,  is  admit- 
ted into  the  evaporator,  a  great  change  is  seen  to  have  taken  place. 
The  liquid  is  then  brilliantly  transparent  and  of  the  lightest  golden 
color.  Except  to  take  away  the  thin  curdy  pellicle,  which  will 
still  continue  to  be  thrown  off  to  some  extent,  no  special  care  need 
be  taken  in  the  evaporation,  other  than  that  it  be  conducted  as  rap- 
idly as  possible  from  a  shallow  bed  of  juice. 

All  the  characteristics  of  the  juice,  when  purified  as  above  indi- 
cated, should  be  retained  by  the  syrup  to  the  close  of  the  evapora- 
tion. And  if  from  any  cause  the  color  deepens  perceptibly,  and 
the  syrup  loses  its  distinctly  acid  character,  more  of  solution  B 
must  be  added  to  it  while  the  evaporation  is  going  on,  until  the 
former  indications  are  restored. 

After  the  juice  has  reached  the  condition  of  a  not  very  dense 
syrup  (a  point  indicated  by  a  boiling  temperature  of  about  225°  F.) 
it  is  ready  to  be  received  into  the  finisher,  as  above  described.  This 
syrup  will  then  be  of  the  brightest  golden  hue,  if  it  is  from  sor- 
ghum, and  perfectly  clear.  If  from  maize,  the  color  will  generally 
be  somewhat  deeper,  with  sometimes  a  faint  pinkish  tinge. 

In  the  case  of  sorghum,  the  syrup  should  be  concentrated  in  a 
few  minutes  to  a  point  at  which  it  suddenly  becomes  clouded  or 
opalescent,  and  scarcely  flows  upon  the  surface  of  a  ladle  dipped 
into  it  and  immediately  held  up  in  the  air.  It  boils  without  foam, 
except  at  the  last,  and  during  the  final  stage  of  concentration,  for 
two  or  three  minutes;  it  should  be  constantly  stirred  with  the  perfor- 
ated scraper  already  described,  moving  the  latter  slowly  back  and 
forth  over  the  entire  bottom  of  the  pan. 

Corn  syrup  must  not  be  boiled  to  quite  so  great  a  density,  but 
it  may  without  detriment  be  reduced  to  as  low  a  point  as  is  indi- 
cated by  a  temperature,  while  boiling,  of  236°  to  239°  F. 


60  DRAINAGE. 

The  cooler  should  be  capacious  enough  to  contain  the  successive 
"  skippings  "  of  several  hours'  work.  The  type  of  crystallization 
setting  in  will  be  improved  and  the  process  will  ensue  more  rap- 
idly if  a  very  small  quantity  of  well  crj^stallized  sugar  be  mixed 
with  the  syrup  as  it  cools.  Therefore,  when  the  cooler  and  crystal- 
lizing vessels  are  emptied  each  time  to  be  refilled,  it  is  advisable  to 
allow  some  sugar  to  remain  adherent  to  the  bottom  and  sides  to 
form  nuclei  for  the  following  batch,  and  it  is  well  to  stir  into  the 
first  batch  made  each  season  an  ounce  or  two  of  well-crystallized 
sugar ;  but  this  need  not  be  repeated. 

The  cooler,  when  charged,  is  to  be  run  into  the  crystallizing- 
room,  and  its  contents  dipped  out  into  the  proper  vessels,  either  of 
the  form  above  described  or  some  convenient  substitute  for  them. 


DSAINAGE    OP    THE    SUGAR. 

Crystallization  of  Maize  Sugar — Treatment  of  Drainage  Syrups — Crystalliza- 
tion of  Sorghum  Sugar— Special  Treatment — Drainage  by  Pressure — 
Drainage  Sacks — RecrystalJizatiou  of  Fme-Grained  Sugar — Mode  ot"  Pro- 
ducing either  Coarse  or  Fine  Grained  Sugar  from  Sorghum. 

The  first  crystallization  of  corn  syrup  will  have  become  perfected 
in  from  two  to  ten  days.  From  this  time  forward  it  may  be  treated 
precisely  as  the  sugar  of  the  southern  cane.  It  may  be  left  to 
purge  itself  by  natural  drainage  from  the  vessels  in  which  it  has 
granulated,  or  the  molasses  may  be  removed  by  inclosing  the 
mush  sugar  in  close  muslin  or  linen  sacks  and  applying  a  screw  or 
hj^draulic  press,  or  preferably  and  much  the  most  expeditiously,  by 
means  of  a  centrifugal  machine,  such  as  those  now  used  in  the  re- 
fineries and  in  beet-sugar  works. 

The  syrup  of  drainage  should  be  reboiled  in  the  finisher,  or  in 
the  evaporator  and  finisher  combined,  and  treated  at  the  close  just 
as  the  original  syrup,  except  that  the  finishing  temperature  should 
reach  240°  F. ;  the  stirring  operation  in  ti»e  finisher  should  be  com- 
menced sooner  than  before,  and  previous  to  boiling  it  the  second 


DRAINAGE   BY   CENTRIFUGAL   ACTION.  61 

time  about  one-fourth  of  its  volume  of  water  should  be  mixed 
with  it,  to  which  a  little  of  solution  B  has  been  added.  The  quan- 
tity of  the  latter  needed  will  vary  with  the  quality  of  the  syrup, 
but  about  a  pint  of  the  solution  to  each  ten  gallons  of  the  undiluted 
molasses  will  generally  be  sufficient. 

The  product  of  the  first  crystallization  from  corn  should  be  about 
6|  pounds  of  sugar  from  a  gallon  of  syrup  weighing  13J  pounds ; 
product  of  second  crystallization,  3£  pounds ;  total,  10  pounds. 
About  a  pound  and  a  half  of  uncrystallized  sugar  remains  in  the 
molasses  of  the  second  crystallization,  which  may  be  fed  to  stock 
or  otherwise  utilized,  but  the  mineral  salts  still  remaining  render 
it  of  no  value  as  an  article  of  human  food. 

Sorghum  should  be  reduced  at  first  to  such  a  density  by  evapo- 
ration that  after  a  lapse  of  from  twenty-four  to  forty-eight  hours, 
when  kept  in  a  warm  place,  it  will  become  an  almost  solid  mass  of 
sugar.  It  requires,  then,  a  special  mode  of  treatment,  the  crystals 
being  small  and  held  together  by  a  comparatively  small  quantity 
of  molasses.  When  in  this  condition,  the  mass  should  be  thrown 
into  a  large  tub  or  mixing  vessel,  and  a  small  quantity  (about  one- 
eighth  or  tenth  of  its  bulk)  of  a  fair,  thin  syrup  of  a  density  of 
about  30°  Beaume"  when  cold,  previously  prepared  from  sorghum 
juice,  should  be  poured  upon  it  and  thoroughly  incorporated  with 
it  by  means  of  a  wooden  stirrer.  * 

This  will  bring  it  to  a  more  plastic  or  semi-fluid  state,  if  the 
room  in  which  the  operation  is  performed  has  been  kept  heated. 
This  syrup  dilutes  the  uncrystallized  sugar  sufficiently  to  render  it 
mobile,  and  does  not  dissolve  the  cane  sugar  already  granulated. 

The  mass  may  then  be  drained  in  a  centrifugal,  the  inner  drum 
of  which  is  very  closely  but  minutely  perforated,  and  running  at 
the  highest  rate  of  speed — a  drum  of  two  feet  in  diameter  making 
not  less  than  1,400  revolutions  per  minute. 

Another  method  of  drainage  is  similar  to  that  employed  in  some 
sugar-beet  factories,  to  extract  the  juice  from  the  pulp  of  the  beet, 

*  An  iron  mixing-mill  constructed  somewhat  like  the  feed-hopper  of  a  cen- 
trifugal sugar-drainer,  with  a  revolving  shaft  in  its  center,  set  with  long,  pro* 
jecting  teeth,  may  be  employed  in  regular  work. 


62  DRAINAGE. 

and  also  to  separate  the  saccharine  matter  left  in  the  scums.  A 
number  of  linen  or  coarse  and  strong  muslin  sacks  are  provided, 
of  any  convenient  size  ;  but  their  length  should  be  about  two  and 
one-half  times  their  width — say  20  by  50  inches.  Each  sack  must 
be  about  one-third  filled  with  the  sugary  mass,  then  folded  once 
on  itself  across  the  middle,  and  flattened  by  placing  it  upon  a 
table,  upon  a  sheet-iron  plate  with  rounded  corners,  a  little 
larger  on  every  side  than  the  flattened  half  of  the  sack  and  its 
contents,  the  loose  half  being  folded  under. 

The  open  end  of  the  sack  may  be  folded,  before  being  turned 
under,  if  necessary.  The  plate  and  sack  and  its  contents  are  then 
to  be  placed  within  a  frame  upon  the  bed  of  a  powerful  screw 
press,  and  a  series  of  such  sacks  and  interposed  plates,  laid  neatly 
one  upon  another — the  butts  of  the  sacks  alternately  being  turned 
in  opposite  directions — are  subjected  to  pressure,  gradually  applied 
at  first  to  avoid  rupture  of  the  sacks,  and  afterwards  with  sufficient 
power  to  remove  all  the  molasses  and  leave  the  sugar  nearly  dry. 

This  fine-grained  sugar  is  then  to  be  transferred,  without  f  urther 
drying,  to  a  heating  vessel,  and  about  one-tenth  of  its  weight  of 
pure  water  mixed  with  it.  Here  it  is  to  be  heated  very  gradually, 
with  frequent  stirring,  so  as  to  diffuse  the  heat  through  the  mass, 
and  when  it  has  partially  re  melted,  and  is  in  the  half-liquified  state, 
it  is  to  be  poured  finally  into  the  crystallizing  boxes,  in  a  room 
heated  to  about  90°  F.,  where  it  will  form  a  solid  mass  of  crystals, 
as  soon  as  it  becomes  cooled  down  to  the  temperature  of  the  room. 
The  result  is  a  very  coarse-grained,  beautiful  sugar,  of  a  high 
grade.  If  properly  prepared  it  will  be  almost  white,  and  the  im- 
mediate yield  is  almost  double  that  which  may  be  secured  in  any 
other  way  without  reboiling. 

The  sugar  prepared  from  sorghum  in  such  a  way  has  the  addi- 
tional advantages,  that  it  is  not  contaminated  with  the  secondary 
products  usually  formed  by  reboiling,  the  final  crystallization  is 
attended  by  no  risk  from  want  of  experience  or  skill  on  the  part  of 
tbe  workmen,  the  work  is  easily  and  cheaply  done,  and  with  due 
care  the  product  should  rank  nearly  or  quite  equal  to  vacuum 
sugar.  The  very  small  quantity  of  syrup  left  in  contact  with  the 


SYSTEM  OF  WORK.  63 

crystals,  at  the  proper  temperature,  will  drain  off  from  the  crys- 
tallizers,  and  it  being  almost  free  from  glucose  will  crystallize 
gradually  if  exposed  in  broad  trays,  at  the  temperature  of  the 
room. 

If  the  production  of  sugar  of  a  softer  and  more  open  grain  is 
desired,  it  can  readily  be  accomplished  by  a  mode  of  treatment  of 
the  prepared  mass,  almost  identical  with  the  "stirring  off"  process 
adopted  by  maple-sugar  producers ;  but  as  to  color  and  grain,  with 
much  better  results.  After  the  reheated  sugar  mixture,  as  above 
mentioned,  has  been  poured  into  the  crystallizing  boxes,  instead  of 
being  allowed  to  remain  at  rest,  it  should  be  stirred  with  a  broad, 
oar-shaped,  wooden  instrument,  without  interruption,  until  it  is 
cool,  and  the  sugar  has  become  dry ;  but  this  course  should  never 
be  followed  when  sugar  of  a  large,  bold  grain  is  desired. 

These  last-mentioned  modes  of  crystallization  and  drainage  are 
better  adapted  to  sorghum  than  to  Indian  corn,  and  hence  I  recom- 
mend for  the  treatment  of  corn  syrup,  in  crystallization,  the 
method  previously  given  as  the  best.  Sorghum  may  be  similarly 
treated  with  good  results,  and  dried  in  a  centrifugal. 


XI. 

SUGAR   FACTORIES. 

System  of  "Work— Advantages  of  Division  of  Labor— Point  at  which  this  Pro- 
cess may  be  Suspended— Central  Factory  System— Associated  Interests  of 
the  Planter  and  Manufacturer— Benefits  of  the  System— Plantation  Sys- 
tem—How the  Small  Factories  may  be  made  Auxiliary  to  the  Central 
Works— Present  Wants  and  Opportunities— Utilization  of  Existing  Ma- 
chinery—Home Manufacture— Plan  of  a  Small  Sugar  Factory— Explana- 
tion of  the  Diagram — Arrangement  of  Small  Works . 

In  all  cases  where  the  extraction  of  sugar  from  these  juices  is 
the  object,  the  general  system  as  above  given  should  be  adhered 
to.  It  will  readily  be  seen  that  it  is  adapted  to  operations  of  any 
degree  of  magnitude. 


64  SUGAR   FACTORIES. 

It  has  already  been  shown  that  the  storing  of  the  canes  is  always 
attended  with  loss,  and  that  after  the  canes  have  been  cut,  imme- 
diately the  work  of  manufacture  must  begin,  and  progress  without 
interruption  until  a  defecated  syrup  of  30°  to  35°  Beaume"  has  been 
produced.  This  makes  it  necessary  that  the  whole  series  of  oper- 
ations up  to  the  point  when  crystallization  commences  in  the  syrup, 
at  least,  should  be  conducted  at  one  establishment  and  in  close 
succession.  An  economical  division  of  labor  under  which  alone  the 
highest  degree  of  success  can  be  attained  will  separate,  in  a  great 
measure,  the  agricultural  operations  necessary  to  the  production  of 
the  ripened  canes  ready  for  the  mill  from  the  manufacturing  pro- 
cess. 

This  can  be  effected  in  two  ways,  cither  of  which  may  be  fol- 
lowed with  perfect  success.  These  are — 

1.  The  central  factory  system ;  and 

2.  The  plantation  system. 

By  the  concentration  of  all  the  machinery,  capital,  and  skilled 
labor  at  one  point,  advantageously  located  within  each  sugar-grow- 
ing district,  many  advantages  are  gained,  and  they  will  be  found 
perhaps  to  be  most  fully  secured  by  the  'central  factory  system. 
The  central  factory  will  bear  a  similar  relation  to  the  wants  and 
interests  of  the  sugar  planter  that  the  district  flouring  mill  does  to 
those  of  the  wheat  grower,  with  this  difference  only,  that  the  in- 
terests of  the  farmer  and  manufacturer  in  the  former  case  are  more 
closely  allied  than  in  the  latter,  because  the  perishable  nature  of 
the  raw  material,  its  bulk  and  weight,  prevent  it  from  becoming 
an  article  of  ordinary  commercial  traffic  like  grain.  In  conse-' 
quence,  the  local  producer  and  the  manufacturer  are  permanently 
associated  together  in  the  strongest  possible  union  of  interests. 
The  work  of  the  one  is  the  exact  complement  of  that  of  the  other. 
Each  is  enabled  to  do  in  the  best  manner  what  neither  could  do  so 
well,  if  at  all  alone.  By  previous  contract,  the  factory  owner  will  pay 
the  producer  as  much  for  his  cane  on  its  delivery  as  the  latter  could 
sell  his  sugar  for  after  deducting  the  actual  cost  which,  with  his 
limited  time  and  facilities,  he  would  incur  in  the  manufacture. 

Among  the  benefits  of  such  a  division  of  labor  and  responsibility 
will  be  the  rapidly  increasing  production  and  value  of  the  lands 


CENTRAL  FACTORY  SYSTEM.  65 

iii  the  neighborhood  of  the  central  works,  greater  uniformity  and 
value  of  the  crude  material  on  account  of  the  greater  care  and 
more  exact  system  used  in  producing  it,  adequate  remuneration  to 
all  employed  in  both  branches  of  the  work,  certain  and  steady 
employment  at  fixed  prices  during  the  entire  season,  the  smaller 
cost  proportionately  of  the  machinery  to  the  amount  of  land  in 
cultivation,  and  an  aggregate  production  for  the  whole  country 
immensely  greater  than  by  any  system  which  casts  the  burdan  of 
the  whole  work  upon  a  single  individual.  At  such  an  establish- 
ment it  is  expected  that  the  entire  process  of  sugar  extraction 
would  begin  and  end ;  that  the  highest  grades  of  sugar  would  be 
produced  there,  and  a  stability  secured  for  the  business  in  all  its 
branches  which  cannot  be  attained  by  unsupported  individual 
efforts. 

At  every  such  large  factory  ample  means  must  be  provided  for 
reducing  to  syrup,  at  least,  the  juice  of  the  fresh  canes  as  fast  as 
they  are  received,  the  uniformity  in  the  supply  being  maintained 
from  early  in  August  until  late  in  November,  in  the  middle  lati- 
tudes of  the  United  States,  by  the  reception,  by  previous  contract, 
at  the  works,  of  maize  and  the  earliest  and  last  ripening  varieties  of 
sorghum  in  succession,  throughout  the  season.  The  canes  will  be 
paid  for  by  the  ton,  as  received,  and  the  responsibility  of  the  pro- 
ducer will  end  when  they  are  delivered  in  proper  condition.  At 
the  close  of  the  milling  season  the  work  at  the  factory  will  consist 
in  the  drainage  and  preparation  for  the  market  of  the  sugar,  the 
reworking  and  recrystallization  of  drainage  syrups,  and  the  proper 
Utilization  of  all  secondary  products.  This  work  will  consume 
profitably  the  whole  of  the  winter  months. 

2.  The  plantation  system  will .  differ  from  the  above  chiefly 
in  the  much  more  restricted  range  of  its  work.  Smaller  fac- 
tories conveniently  located  will  take  off  the  crop  of  the  sur- 
rounding region  as  rapidly  as  it  comes  in  season,  arid  reduce  it  to  a 
perfectly  clarified  syrup  of  a  given  density.  This  syrup  properly 
stored  will  then  be  in  a  regularly  merchantable  condition,  ready  for 
market  a  few  hours  after  leaving  the  evaporators,  and  command- 
ing at  the  large  central  factory  or  refinery  a  price  proportionate  to 
its  quality.  The  value  of  a  barrel  of  syrup  according  to  an  exist- 


66  SUGAR   FACTORIES. 

ing  standard  may  be  determined  with  as  much  accuracy  as  that  of 
a  bushel  of  wheat,  by  the  use  of  the  copper  test 'in  a  simplified 
form,  a  means  which  can  easily  be  placed  within  reach  of  seller  and 
buyer  alike. 

Just  at  the  present  time,  however,  there  is  a  large  class  of  persons 
in  our  country  having  lands  well  adapted  to  sugar -growing,  and 
possessed  of  sufficient  energy  and  intelligence,  whose  means  or 
opportunities  do  not  permit  them  to  engage  largely  in  this  pursuit, 
but  who  would  be  glad  to  have  it  within  their  power  to  work  up, 
during  this  season  or  the  next,  the  crop  of  corn  or  cane  which  they 
grow  upon  their  own  lands ;  and  it  is  just  this  class  of  persons, 
farmers  of  moderate  means,  desirous  of  assisting  in  an  important 
work,  and  of  enhancing  their  own  comfort,  profit,  and  independ- 
enc3,  by  whom  the  initiatory  steps  will  be  taken  in  this  pursuit. 
Thousands  of  sets  of  small,  cheap  apparatus,  formerly  used  in  the 
manufacture  of  crude  sorghum  syrup,  are  now  scattered  over  the 
whole  country,  in  the  possession  of  persons  of  this  class.  With 
but  slight  modification  this  machinery  can  now  be  utilized  largely 
during  the  next  year  or  two  in  the  production  of  crude  maize  and 
sorghum  sugars.  The  process  is  sufficiently  simple,  as  above  de- 
fined, to  make  this  quite  practicable  without  expense. 

The  growth  of  this  new  branch  of  industry  will  soon  give  rise  to 
large  establishments ;  but  from  the  circumstance  that  the  means 
are  already  provided  for  success  in  this  stage  of  the  work,  the  value 
to  the  country  from  the  time  gained  and  the  money  saved  by  put- 
ting them  to  immediate  use  will  be  immeasurable. 

It  was  only  after  many  years  of  trial  of  mills  propelled  by  ani- 
mal power  and  of  inexpensive  apparatus,  that  the  sugar  industry 
of  Louisiana  ever  attained  to  any  prominence  ;  and,  notwithstand- 
ing the  most  elaborate  and  expensive  machinery  has  of  late  years 
been  in  use  there,  small  planters  still  adhere  to  the  simpler  appli- 
ances, and  with  a  marked  degree  of  success  and  profit.  Here, 
also,  as  there,  large  works  will  not  interfere  in  the  least  with  those 
conducted  on  a  very  moderate  scale,  if  the  latter  be  managed  with 
skill  and  prudence.  The  one  will  b-3  auxiliary  to  the  other.  On 
account  of  the  expense  and  risk  of  transporting  hu-ge  quantities 


SMALL  AUXILIARY  FACTORIES.  67 

of  the  canes  from  different  parts  of  an  extended  area  of  country 
beyond  a  very  moderate  distance,  the  establishment  of  small  fac- 
tories to  reduce  the  crop  to  crystallizable  syrup,  or  at  most  to  sugar 
of  the  first  crystallization,  is  highly  to  be  commended. 

The  question  is  asked,  How  can  the  planter  work  up  to  advan- 
tage a  crop  of  from  ten  to  twenty  acres  of  cane  or  corn  on  his  own 
land  and  under  his  own  care,  conducting  the  whole  series  of  op- 
erations, beginning  with  the  working  of  the  soil  and  the  planting 
of  the  seed  and  ending  with  the  production  of  a  good  article  of 
crude  yellow  sugar  ? 

The  importance  of  this  question  in  this  connection  demands  an 
answer  in  more  explicit  terms  than  is  found  in  the  general  outline 
already  given.  In  the  accompanying  diagram  the  essential  feat- 
ures of  a  sugar  factory  to  answer  such  a  purpose  are  sketched. 
It  is  most  convenient  in  such  case  to  have  the  whole  work  done 
under  one  roof  or  within  a  single  building.  When  the  location 
admits  of  it,  the  general  arrangement  here  given  will  be  found  to 
be  very  advantageous.  But,  whatever  be  the  shape  or  size  of  the 
building,  it  is  necessary  that  the  space  inside  should  be  divided  off 
into  four  separate  compartments,  and  these  should  be  contiguous 
to  each  other  in  the  following  order  :  The  mill-room  (A ;)  the  evap- 
orating room  (B ;)  the  crystallizing  room  (C ;)  and  the  drying- 
room  (D.)  (See  diagram.) 

The  first  two  of  these  may  be  open  sheds  simply,  but  the  last 
two  should  be  tightly  closed  in  and  provided  with  the  means  of 
keeping  up  the  temperature  within  them  to  80°  F.  whenever  neces- 
sary. In  addition  to  these  there  should  be  space  for  the  storage 
of  the  products  of  the  factory. 

The  mill  (a)  may  be  propelled  by  steam,  water  or  animal  power, 
and  in  any  case  should  be  placed  upon  a  strong  platform  of  plank 
supported  by  stout  timbers.  If  horses  are  used  to  propel  it,  they 
work  on  the  ground  floor  below;  the  swape  is  a  straight  beam, 
secured  in  a  horizontal  position,  at  a  height  suitable  for  easy  draught, 
to  a  vertical  wooden  shaft  of  ten  or  twelve  inches  in  diameter,  which 
is  strongly  coupled  to  the  shaft  of  the  driving-roll.  Mills  with 
either  horizontal  or  vertical  rolls  may  be  used  in  this  manner. 


68  SUGAR  FACTORIES. 

The  convenience  of  this  arrangement  is  obvious.  The  horses 
work  to  good  advantage,  the  vicinity  of  the  mill  is  clear  of  all 
incuinbrance,  the  loss  by  waste,  dirt,  damage  to  machinery,  &c., 
is  much  diminished.  The  horizontal  mills  should  be  furnished 
with  aprons  for  carrying  for  ward  the  cane  and  removing  the  trash. 
There  is  room  at  one  side  and  sufficient  elevation  to  allow  the 
trash  to  be  dumped  over  the  platform  outside  the  building  either 
into  wagons  or  carts  to  convey  it  to  a  barnyard  for  conversion  into 
manure,  or  it  may  be  utilized  by  burning  it  in  the  furnaces  close 
alongside.  It  is  convenient  to  have  the  mill-room  at  the  base  of  a 
slight  declivity  or  platform  of  rising  ground,  so  that  its  floor  will 
be  on  a  level  with  the  ground  at  the  side  where  the  cane  is  re- 
ceived to  be  passed  through  the  mill. 

The  supply  of  cane  or  corn  to  the  mill  should  be  continuous.  As 
already  indicated,  it  should  be  conveyed  to  the  mill  as  soon  as  it  is 
cut  down  in  the  field,  so  that  only  a  few  hours  may  intervene  until 
it  is  worked  up.  Store  room  need  only  be  provided  for  as  much  as 
can  be  passed  through  the  mill  in  24  hours.  The  mill,  horses,  cane, 
and  all  the  machinery  should  be  under  roof,  that  there  need  be  no 
interruption  of  the  work. 

From  the  tank  (4)  at  the  mill  sufficient  fall  for  the  juice  is  secured. 
It  is  received  first  into  the  heating  tanks  (6)  by  a  pipe  (p  p,)  and 
thence  by  its  downward  flow  successively  into  the  defecating  tank 
(7,)  the  supply  tank  (8,)  the  evaporator  (9,)  the  finisher  (10,)  and  the 
cooler  (11.)  Thence  the  cooler  containing  the  granulating  syrup  is 
conveyed  along  a  tramway  into  the  crystallizing-room  (C)  adjoining, 
and  the  crystallizing  boxes  (c  c  c)  are  filled  in  succession  from 
it.  Centrifugals  for  drying  the  sugar  (16  16)  or  the  press  (17)  are 
located  in  the  adjoining  room,  (D.)  Brick-lined  and  cemented  cis- 
terns, (18  18  18,)  excavated  beneath  the  floor  of  the  evaporating- 
room,  receive  through  pipes  or  troughs  the  syrup  of  drainage  from 
the  crystallizing  vessels,  the  centrifugals,  or  the  press. 

In  the  draining-room  (D)  sufficient  space  (14, 15)  maybe  provided 
for  the  cutting  from  the  cob  by  machinery,  and  the  drying  of  the 
grain  of  unripe  sugar  corn. 

The  water  supply  for  the  works  should  be  abundant,  and  if  an 
engine  is  used  to  propel  the  crushing-mill  the  boilers  should  be  suf- 
ficiently large  to  supply  steam  for  evaporative  Or  heating  purposes. 


REWORKING  OF  SCUMS  AND  DRAINAGE  SYRUPS.  69 

Ordinary  good  judgment  on  the  part  of  the  operator,  attention 
to  details,  a  knowledge  of  the  main  principles  involved,  and  a 
degree  of  practical  skill,  easily  acquired,  are  all  that  are  necessary 
to  give  to  this  new  business  a  rapid  and  permanent  success. 


XII. 
UTILIZATION  OF  SECONDARY  PRODUCTS. 

Importance  of  the  Subject— Reworking  of  Scums  and  Drainage  Syrups- 
Important  Rule— Value  of  Green  Cobs— Test  to  be  Made  of  Preserving 
Them  for  Winter  Forage  by  "  Ensilage  "—Unfinished  Experiments. 

The  proper  utilization  of  the  various  secondary  products  arising 
from  this  industry  is  a  subject  of  great  importance.  The  maize- 
sugar  manufacture  in  particular,  in  its  relation  to  the  feeding  of 
farm  stock  in  a  systematic  way,  demands  special  attention.  In 
these  pages  but  one  mode  of  utilizing  the  grain  of  green  corn  is 
indicated,  but  a  wide  field  is  opened  for  investigation  to  determine 
what  other  and  perhaps  more  valuable  forms  it  may  be  made  in 
skillful  hands  to  assume. 

In  this  manufacture  nothing  whatever  should  be  wasted.  The 
scums  and  precipitates,  the  washings  of  the  sacks  and  of  the  tanks 
and  vessels  used,  should  be  exhausted  of  the  sugar  which  they  con- 
tain, by  reboiling  and  skimming,  or  straining  and  condensation  to 
syrup  for  crystallization;  the  same  precautions  being  taken  to  secure 
perfect  defecation  that  are  necessary  in  the  treatment  of  the  im- 
pure juice.  The  rule  always  adopted  in  all  well-regulated  sugar- 
works  should  be  enforced  here.  Ko  inferior  saccharine  solution 
should  be  brought  in  contact  with  another  of  a  higher  grade. 

The  careful  farmer  will  appreciate  the  importance  of  preserving 
in  the  best  condition  the  tops,  blades,  cane  seed,  tfcc.,  which  have 
been  removed  in  the  field.  The  ashes  of  the  furnaces,  precipitates, 
&c.,  are  best  utilized  as  manures.  The  cobs  from  which  sweet  corn  is 
cut  for  drying  are  as  saccharine  as  the  stalks  and  much  more  nutri- 


70  UTILIZATION  OF  SECONDARY  PRODUCTS. 

tive.  The  process  of  "ensilage,"  or  burial  in  pits,  the  French  method 
of  curing  green  forage  for  winter  use,  suggests  itself  as  important 
in  this  connection.  Experiments  designed  to  determine  fully  its 
value,  will  be  made  during  the  present  season.  The  cobs  of  green 
corn  from  which  the  grain  has  been  cut  retain  the  upips,"  or  most 
nutritive  portion  of  the  imbedded  grain,  which  increase  very 
largely  their  value  as  feed  for  cattle  or  hogs.  As  compared  with  the 
cob  of  the  unripened  corn,  that  of  the  mature  ear  is  almost  value- 
less. 

The  attention  of  the  reader  is  directed  to  paper  (C)  in  the 
Appendix,  containing  information  and  suggestions  of  value  as  to 
the  utilization  of  various  secondary  products  of  maize  and  sorghum, 
which  may  be  made  auxiliary  to  the  sugar  manufacture  in  the  ma- 
jority of  cases  to  a  very  large  extent.  Experiments  now  in  pro- 
gress, the  results  of  which  cannot  be  communicated  before  the  close 
of  this  season,  seem  to  indicate  that  there  is  no  portion  of  the  fabric 
of  these  most  remarkable  plants  which  does  not  appeal  to  our  in- 
telligence as  contributing  to  supply  some  important  want  of  our 
modern  civilization. 


COMPARISON  OF  SUGAR  PLANTS.  71 


APPENDIX  A. 

COMPARISON    OF    SUGAR    PLANTS. 
1.— BOTANICAL  RELATIONSHIP. 

Sorghum,  maize,  and  the  tropical  sugar-cane  are  closely  related. 
They  are  all  simply  gigantic  grasses,  with  a  solid  pith,  as 
distinguished  from  those  which  are  reed-like  or  hollow.  The  pith 
is  charged  at  a  certain  period  of  their  growth  with  a  rich  saccharine 
juice,  differing  in  its  nature  and  properties  with  the  species  from 
which  it  is  obtained  and  perfectly  characteristic  of  each.  There 
are  numerous  well-defined  varieties  of  each  species. 

The  beet  is  remarkable  as  being  a  member  of  a  peculiar  order  of 
plants,  to  which  belong  such  alkaline  sea-side  plants  as  the  sam- 
phire, (salicornia,)  saltwort,  (salsola,)  and  obione.  Of  the  same 
natural  family  is  the  common  wormseed  (ambrina  antlielmintica.) 
It  is  probable  that  its  saccharine  character  has  been  developed 
largely  by  cultivation.  Of  the  many  varieties  of  the  beet  only  the 
white-fleshed  kinds,  especially  that  known  as  the  Silesian,  are 
adapted  to  the  production  of  sugar. 

2.— PERIOD  OF  GROWTH. 

Sorghum. — Annual,  at  least  in  temperate  latitudes.  The  length 
of  its  period  of  growth  differs  with  the  variety,  varying  from  three 
to  five  months. 

Maize. — Annual ;  ripening  its  seed  in  from  three  to  five  months 
in  North  America. 

Sugar- Cane. — Perennial  from  the  root-stalk  in  the  tropics ;  flow- 
ering in  from  twelve  to  twenty  months.  In  Louisiana  it  never 
matures  its  seed. 


/  Z  APPENDIX  A. 

Bset. — Biennial,  ripening  its  seed  the  second  year  from  the  plant- 
ing, but  maturing  its  juice  in  the  root  during  the  first  season.  The 
time  required  for  this  purpose  is  about  eight  months  from  the  tune 
of  sowing  the  seed. 

3.— PROPAGATION. 

Sorglium. — Propagated  from  seeds  planted  in  early  spring.  Much 
labor  arid  expense  is  thus  saved,  which  in  Louisiana  is  expended  in 
the  cultivation  and  care  of  the  "seed  cane"  or  cuttings  of  sugar- 
cane. 

Maize. — Annually,  during  summer,  from  the  seed.  Enjoys 
equal  advantages  with  sorghum  in  this  respect. 

Sugar-Cane. — Propagated  always  in  the  sugar  district  of  our 
Gulf  States,  and  ordinarily  in  the  tropics,  from  cuttings  of  the 
stem,  (joints.)  In  Louisiana,  on  account  of  constant  deterioration, 
it  is  necessary  to  replant  from  cuttings  at  least  every  third  or  fourth 
year.  One-fourth  of  the  whole  breadth  of  land  devoted  to  sugar- 
culture  being  employed  constantly  in  the  propagation  of  the  joints 
from  which  the  cane  crop  on  the  other  three-fourths  is  grown. 

Beet. — By  seeds,  annually;  but  unlike  maize  or  sorghum,  no 
seed  is  grown  from  the  crop  which  produces  sugar.  The  expense, 
however,  of  growing  beets  for  seed  is  trifling  to  that  incurred  for 
the  propagation  of  the  sugar-cane. 

4.— KATOONING,  OK  TILLERING. 

Sorglium. — The  crop  of  sorghum  is  capable  generally  of  large 
increase  each  season  by  side  shoots  arising  from  the  root.  It  can- 
not be  propagated  from  cuttings  of  the  stem ;  but  when  the  stems 
are  cut  down  they  ratoon  like  sugar-cane.  Mr.  Leonard  Wrayhas 
stated  that  in  South  Africa  he  grew  ratoons  of  neeazana,  or  white 
imphee,  six  feet  in  height,  within  two  months  after  the  first  cutting, 
sometimes  as  many  as  fifteen  stems  tillering  out  from  one  root. 
These  ripened  their  seed.  This  mode  of  increase  is  precisely  an- 
alogous to  the  tillering  of  our  winter  wheat  when  it  has  been  cut 
down  by  the  frost ;  but  unlike  wheat,  and  like  the  sugar-cane, 
sorghum  in  some  climates  produces  an  increased  second  crop  of 


CLIMATE  AND  SOIL.  73 

matured  stems  from  the  same  roots  which  supported  a  previously 
ripened  crop. 

Maize. — This  mode  of  increase  is  not  at  all  characteristic  of 
maize. 

Sugar-cane. — Katoons  regularly  as  above  described. 

Beet. — Cannot  be  multiplied  or  propagated  in  any  way  analo- 
gous to  this. 

5. — CLIMATE. 

Sorghum. — The  climate  of  the  whole  territory  of  the  United 
States  south  of  Alaska,  where  the  soil  is  not  barren  and  the  moist- 
ure is  sufficient  during  the  summer  months,  is  adapted  in  various 
degrees  to  its  growth.  Early  maturing  varieties  are  adapted  to 
northern  localities. 

Maize. — A  little  more  sensitive  to  cold  than  sorghum,  but  all 
over  Xorth  America,  where  sorghum  will  thrive,  it  may  be  grown, 
especially  as  it  matures  its  juice  within  a  shorter  period. 

Sugar-cane. — Limited  to  a  very  narrow  belt  of  country  border- 
ing upon  the  Mexican  Gulf.  A  tropical  climate  only  is  well 
adapted  to  its  production. 

Beet. — May  be  grown  for  sugar  in  the  latitude  of  the  Middle  and 
Northern  States  generally,  but  not  at  the  South.  It  will  yield 
sugar  remuneratively  only  in  localities  where  the  summer  rainfall 
is  well  distributed  throughout  the  season  and  equal  to  that  of 
spring,  and  where  the  natural  peculiarities  of  soil  are  not  unfa- 
vorable. 

6.— SOIL. 

Sorghum. — The  most  suitable  soil,  deep,  rich,  well-drained  cal- 
careous. 

Maize. — The  richest  and  deepest  natural  soils,  moderately  en- 
riched ;  not  so  sensitive  to  excess  of  moisture  in  the  soil  as  sor- 
ghum. 

Sugar-cane. — A  rich,  deep,  moist  loam  the  best.  First  crop  off 
new  lands  poor  in  sugar. 

Beet. — Similar  requirements  to  the  above  as  to  depth  and  high 
fertility,  but  it  is  much  more  sensitive  as  a  sugar  plant ;  and  our 
best  u  corn  lands"  and  natural  soils,  the  alluvions  and  prairies,  have 
proved  unfavorable  to  it. 


74 


APPENDIX   A. 


7.— MANURES. 

All  these  plants  yield  juices  less  rich  in  sugar,  and  containing 
more  impurities— especially  substances  containing  nitrogen —when 
supplied  very  liberally  during  the  period  of  their  most  rapid 
growth  with  animal  manures.  As  a  stimulant  to  early  growth  a 
limited  amount  of  well-pulverized  animal  manure,  such  as  guano, 
is  of  advantage.  Lime,  gypsum,  and  the  superphosphates  may  be 
used  always  with  profit,  and  often  to  immense  advantage. 

8.— CHEMICAL  COMPOSITION— THE  STEM. 


. 

Sorghum, 
(average.) 

Maize* 
(average.) 

12.0 

10.8 

Woody  liber,    mucilaginous,    resinous,  and 
albuminous  matter  and  salts  

12  5 

10  1 

Water  

75.5 

70.1 

100.0 

100.0 

Sugar-Cane. 

Sugar 
Beet. 

AVKQUIX,  LA. 

Sten- 
house. 

Pay  en, 
Franco. 

Tahiti 
cane. 

Ribbon  cane. 

14.28 

9.64 

7G.08 

13.39 

9.88 
76.73 

18.02 

10.9i 
71.04 

10.50 

6.00 

83.50 

Woody  liber,  mucila- 
ginous, resinous,  and 
albuminous    matter 

Water  

100.00 

100.00 

100.00 

100.00 

TABLE  GIVING  CHEMICAL  COMPOSITION. 
CHEMICAL  COMPOSITION — THE  JUICE. 


75 


Sorghum, 
(average  ) 

Maize, 
(average.) 

13.5 

12.0 

1.7 

1.6 

Water               

84.8 

SG.4 

100.0 

100.0 

Sugar-  Cane. 

Sugar 
Beet. 

Avequin,  La. 

Evans. 

Payen. 

Sti6*£ir         t  

15.78 
0.38 
83.84 

18.2 
0.8 
81.0 

10.66 
4.57 

84.77 

Water       

100.00 

100.0 

100.00 

APPENDIX  B. 

The  chemical  composition  of  these  plants  and  of  their  juices  I 
have  made  a  subject  of  special  investigation,  a  brief  abstract  of 
which  is  given  in  the  foregoing  comparative  statement,  (A..)  The 
information  thus  gained,  outside  of  its  chief  value  in  outlining  a 
special  mode  of  treatment  for  the  extraction  of  the  sugar,  possesses 
additional  interest  in  its  bearing  upon  other  important  questions. 
One  of  these  is  whether  a  more  exhaustive  method  of  extracting 
the  juice  can  profitably  be  employed  to  take  the  place  of  the  ordi- 


76  APPENDIX  B. 

nary  cane  mills.  The  very  great  loss  sustained  in  the  expression 
of  only  the  larger  part  of  the  juice  of  the  Southern  cane  has  led  to 
the  suggestion  of  a  method  of  cutting  the  stem  of  that  plant  into 
thin  slices,  and  exhausting  the  sugar  by  prolonged  maceration 
and  washing  with  hot  water  and  subsequent  hydrostatic  pres- 
sure. 

The  inapplicability  of  the  latter  method  to  the  extraction  of  the 
sugar  of  Chinese  cane  (and  of  maize  as  well)  is  decisively  shown  if 
we  consider  the  amount  of  soluble  substances  other  than  sugars 
contained  in  the  stem,  as  compared  with  the  amount  of  the 
same  substances  found  in  the  juice  when  expressed  by  a  sugar 
mill. 

•  A  perfectly  ripe  stem  of  Chinese  cane  (containing  more  undis- 
solved  matter  than  if  it  had  been  taken  at  an  earlier  period)  had 
the  following  composition  : 

Water per  cent.  65.80 

Sugar  (crystallizable) "        11.25 

Sugar  (glucose) "         0.75 

Gum...^ "          3.31 

Pectin "          0.00 

Starch "          7.15 

Albumenoids "          2.60 

Cellulose "         7.32 

Oil "          0.02(?) 

Silica,  lime,  potash,  soda,  pyroxydes  of  iron  and 
manganese,  chlorine,  phosphoric  acid,  sulphuric 

acid,  &c "         1.20 

I  have  found  that  by  washing  the  rasped  or  thinly-sliced  cane 
repeatedly  with  cold  water  it  is  capable  of  extracting  4.5  per 
cent,  of  albumenoids,  gum  and  pectin,  while  but  2.4  per  cent,  of 
other  substances  than  sugar  are  found  in  the  juice  as  it  leaves 
the  mill.  But  if  hot-water  maceration  be  employed  to  dissolve  out 
the  sugar,  an  additional  amount  of  pernicious  substances  escape 
with  it — notably  a  large  proportion  of  starch  in  the  gelatinous 
state,  or  amidin.  It  will  also  be  observed  that  the  combined 
weights  of  all  the  substances  in  the  stem  capable  of  being  removed 


TABLE  OF  MAIZE  JUICES. 


77 


along  with  the  sugar  by  acidulated  or  alkalized  water  considerably 
exceed  the  whole  of  the  crystallizable  sugar. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  softer  cellular  structure  of  these  plants, 
as  compared  with  the  southern  cane,  facilitates  very  much  the 
action  of  the  mill  and  increases  the  yield  of  juice  proportionably. 
While  from  50  to  60  per  cent,  only  of  the  juice  of  Louisiana  cane  is 
obtained  ordinarily,  by  this  means  from  80  to  85  per  cent,  from 
maize,  and  from  75  to  80  per  cent,  from  sorghum  (Chinese)  may 
readily  be  obtained,  as  recent  experiments  abundantly  show. 
When  light  mills  are  used  repressing  may  sometimes  be  neces- 
sary. 

The  following  results  of  analyses  made  during  the  past  season 
are  of  interest  chiefly  as  showing  the  relative  proportions  of  the 
sugars  in  these  plants,  at  different  times,  during  the  period  when 
the  extraction  of  sugar  is  profitable  : 

Juice  of  Maize. 


Varieties. 

Stage  of  growth. 

|K. 

co 

Per  cent,  of 
crystallizable 
sugar. 

Per  cent,  of 
un  crystalliza- 
ble sugar. 

Penna.  yellow  

Silk     appearing,     early 
flower  

1  044 

6  98 

1  92 

tt            tt 
"Pop"  corn  (large) 

In  early  "  roasting  ear  ".. 
In  early  flower  .. 

1.053 
1  044 

9.34 

7  25 

1  65 

"Stowcll's    ever- 
green "  

Grain  in  "  early  milk  " 

1  080 

11  34 

Eight-rowed    yel- 
low   

tt       tt        ti        t-t 

1  060 

11  42 

1  65 

Kansas  yellow  

Grain  hardening  

1  051 

9  86 

1  04 

^)  Two    lower 
Stored  2  1     joints  

1  062 

10  48 

2  52 

weeks.  (Middle   and 
J     upper  joints.. 

1.071 

9.80 

5.20 

78 


APPENDIX  B. 
Juice  of  Sorghum. 


Varieties. 

Stage  of  growth. 

I 

Per  cent,  of 
crystallizable 
sugar. 

Per  cent,  of 
un  crystalliza- 
ble sugar. 

Chinese  (regular)... 

u                u          f 
u              u 

Flowers  just  expanding... 
In  flower  a  "1  Butt  joints- 
few  days.  /  Top  joints.. 

1.042 
1.060 
1.053 
1.058 

6.72 
11.30 
9.75 
11  52 

2.18 
1.60 
1.25 
1  18 

U                    It            J 
it                      U 

riPe-      J  Lower  joints. 
Mixed   juice,   ripe    and 
unripe             

1.063 
1.055 

1  060 

12.72 
10.57 

11  34 

0.78 
0.93 

1  56 

Red  imphee 

Seed  in  early  milk  

1  053 

9  92 

0  98 

Seed  ripe  

1.060 

11  92 

0  98 

Black  imphee  . 

Comin0"  in  'flower  

1.053 

9  98 

0  92 

White  imphee.. 

Xot  yet  out  in  flower  

1.059 

10  90 

1  90 

It                  wi 
U                  U 

Flower  just  expanded  
Seed  nearly  ripe 

1.057 
1  060 

10.30 
10  66 

2.20 
2  24 

Chinese  •] 

Cut  and]  Lower  joints, 
stored  3  >  Up  p  e  r  a  n  d 
weeks.    J  middle  joints. 

1.082 
1.082 

14.97 
16.19 

3.53 
2.31 

The  principal  causes  of  failure  in  all  the  attempts  heretofore 
made  to  produce  sugar  from  sorghum,  and  which  would  prove 
almost  equally  formidable  in  the  case  of  maize,  are  chiefly  two, 
viz:  First,  the  presence  in  the  juice,  when  in  the  best  condition, 
of  an  almost  constant  quantity  of  glucose;  and,  second,  the  uni- 
form presence  of  peculiar  protein  and  amylaceous  (starchy) 
compounds  which  distinguish  these  from  other  sugar-producing 
plants.  Consequently,  the  extraction  of  the  sugar  from  them  is  a 
problem  involving  entirely  new  conditions. 

It  was  found  that  the  existence  of  these  bodies  in  the  juice  pre- 
sented an  almost  insuperable  barrier  to  the  modes  of  treatment 
adapted  to  the  cane  of  the  South  and  to  all  the  processes  so  sue- 


I 

CAUSE  OF  FAILURE.  79 

cessf  ul,  and  at  the  same  time  so  tedious  and  expensive,  which  are 
employed  in  Europe  in  the  extraction  of  sugar  from  the  beet.  By 
the  common  treatment  with  lime  the  destruction  of  the  glucose 
and  the  speedy  reduction  of  a  large  part  of  the  cane  sugar 
to  the  condition  of  a  permanently  liquid  sugar,  the  darkening  of  the 
syrup,  and  the  incapacity  of  the  remaining  sugar  to  crystallize,  was 
the  inevitable  result.  On  the  contrary,  if  no  lime  was  employed 
no  defecation  was  possible,  and  the  juice  retained  within  itself  the 
active  elements  of  its  own  destruction.  Thus,  constantly  placed 
between  Scylla  and  Charybdis,  the  practical  operator  was  left  with- 
out resource. 

It  has  commonly  been  supposed  that  maize  contains  110  grape 
sugar.  The  prevalent  opinion  in  regard  to  sorghum  has  been  that 
it  contains  it  in  very  considerable  quantity.  Both  these  opinions 
are  now  shown  to  be  incorrect.  But  that  they  both  contain  un- 
crystallizable  sugar  largely — even  in  larger  proportion  than  that 
Which  is  crystallizable  if  not  taken  fresh  from  the  field— is  proved 
by  every  analysis  made  of  canes  in  that  condition.  Deterioration 
commences  within  a  few  hours  after  they  are  cut  from  the  ground. 
And  to  this  fact  almost  solely  are  attributable  all  the  hitherto  dis- 
cordant results  of  chemical  analysis.  Plants  were  used  which, 
although  bearing  no  external  evidence  of  it,  were  really,  as  to  the 
sugars,  in  various  stages  of  decomposition. 

But  the  utter  failure  hitherto  to  extract  sugar  in  remunerative 
quantities  from  these  plants  has  not  been  due  primarily  to  such 
deterioration.  Canes  taken  in  the  freshest  possible  condition  have 
proved  just  as  refractory  by  the  common  modes  of  treatment  as  if 
crystallizable  sugar  had  no  part  in  their  composition.  The  failure 
has  been  due  to  a  cause  for  which  no  remedy  was  provided. 

I  have  discovered,  in  its  application  to  these  juices,  a  most  re- 
markable property  in  the  dioxide  of  sulphur,  which  has  been  here- 
tofore unused  and  unknown,  namely,  that  of  protecting  as  by  an 
impenetrable  shield  the  sugars  of  both  kinds  in  the  solution  against 
the  action  of  forces  by  which  the  other  deleterious  substances  arc 
oither  neutralized  or  destroyed.  It  has  its  use  pre-eminently  as 
applied  to  natural  j  uices  containing  a  proportion  of  grape  sugar.  The 
j  aices  of  maize  and  sorghum  are  the  principal  examples  of  this  kind, 


80  APPENDIX  B. 

and  there  are  always  other  substances  combined  with  the  sugars 
which  give  to  the  solution  a  peculiar  character.  One  of  these  is  a 
complex  and  powerfully  destructive  body  in  its  eftect  upon  the 
associated  substances,  and  especially  the  sugars.  This  body,  as 
well  as  gum,  is  found  in  these  juices  in  comparatively  large  quan- 
tity, and,  although  there  is  a  variety  of  others  more  or  less  harm- 
ful, none  are  to  be  compared  with  it  in  their  power  to  hinder  crys- 
tallization or  activity  in  producing  decomposition.  This  body,  by 
the  means  here  employed,  is  broken  up,  and  as  was  before  obssrvcd, 
with  it  is  removed  the  last  and  the  most  important  barrier  to  the 
crystallization  of  the  sugar.  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  the  solii* 
tion  B,  into  the  composition  of  which  the  dioxide  of  sulphur* 
enters,  not  only  removes  the  hindering  cause  to  crystallization — 
the  body  in  question — but  it  makes  it  easy  to  secure  the  fall  effect 
of  the  action  of  lime  and  of  lieat  in  defecation,  an  object  otherwise 
unattainable.  Lime,  to  be  really  useful,  must  be  added  in  large 
excess;  but  heretofore  in  clarifying  saccharine  juices  by  the  use 
of  a  large  excess  of  lime,  the  method  has  been  to  mix  enough  of  it 
with  the  juice  to  form  a  lime  compound  with  a  large  part  or  the 
whole  of  the  sugar,  and  afterward  to  neutralize  or  remove  the 
lime  by  carbonic  acid,  assisted  by  filtration  through  boneblack. 
This  method  is  inefficient  as  applied  to  these  juices,  because  of  its 
bad  effect  upon  the  uncrystalli/able  sugar,  and  because  there  are 
very  harmful  impurities  which  still  remain  dissolved  in  the  saccha- 
rine liquid  after  the  lime  has  been  removed  by  precipitation  by 
carbonic  acid  and  filtration  through  boneblack,  or  neutralized  by 
any  .known  chemical  agent  suitable  for  that  purpose.  But  such  a 
method,  even  if  it  were  at  all  appropriate  to  be  used  in  this  case, 
would  be  objectionable  on  account  of  its  heavy  cost. 

*The  use  of  this  agent  in  any  form  in  which  it  can  bo  produced — solid, 
liqui  I  or  gaseous— or  as  it  may  be  produced  from  its  salts,  the  sulphites, 
and  applied  to  sugar  manufacture  from  these  juices  in  such  a  way  as  to 
obtain  its  proper  action,  is  fully  secured  to  me  by  letters-patent  of  the  United 
States.  Sulphurous  oxide  has  had  its  uses  for  other  purposes  than  those  for 
which  I  now  employ  it,  but  that  they  have  no  practical  value  in  this  connec- 
tion the  results  of  the  last  twenty-live  years  fully  show. 


PRODUCTS  OP  THE  BEGASSE  81 

Heat,  to  be  efficacious  for  any  other  purpose  than  simple  evap- 
oration, must  be  applied  to  the  juice  when  it  is  in  a  fit  condition 
to  receive  it.  In  the  ordinary  process  of  making  sorghum  syrup 
it  is  either  a  powerful  agent  in  the  destruction  of  the  sugar,  or  at 
best  it  is  shorn  of  half  its  useful  effect.  The  manufacturers  of  such 
syrups  find  no  advantage  in  the  use  of  lime  in  any  considerable 
proportion,  and  generally  confine  themselves  to  the  action  of  heat 
alone  as  a  purifying  agent.  But  the  action  of  heat  under  such 
circumstances  is  confined  to  the  coagulation  of  only  a  small  por- 
tion of  albuminous  matter,  and  a  boiling  heat  has  no  further  ben- 
eficial effect  in  separating  the  pernicious,  dissolved  substances.  On 
the  contrary,  they  become  permanently  incorporated  with  the 
syrup,  and  their  subsequent  separation  is  an  impossibility  without 
destroying  the  sugar. 

The  efficiency  of  this  process  consists  in  the  power  which  we 
possess,  by  means  of  it,  of  guarding  against  these  evils  and  of  pro- 
ducing thorough  purification. 


APPENDIX  C. 

SECONDARY    PRODUCTS. 

PRODUCTS  OF  THE  BEGASSE. 

1.— The  Fiber. 

The  begasse  as  it  leaves  the  mill  (after  repressing)  contains  cel- 
lulose, a  considerable  proportion  of  starch  and  cerosie,  oil,  coloring 
matter,  a  minute  quantity  of  silicia,  and  about  one-seventh  of  the 
juice  at  first  contained  in  the  stem,  holding  in  solution,  besides 
cane  sugar,  some  glucose,  and  a  variable  quantity  of  gum,  albii- 
menoids,  pectin,  and  soluble  salts. 

The  use  to  which  the  begasse  is  perhaps  most  readily  applicable 
consists  in  its  capacity  as  a  manure  to  restore  to  the  land  most  of 


82  APPENDIX    C. 

the  substances  necessary  to  the  growth  of  future  crops,  which  year 
by  year  are  continually  removed  with  the  cane.  Its  decomposition 
is  most  rapidly  promoted  by  spreading  it  out  in  a  cattle-yard  dur- 
ing tli3  fall  and  winter,  where  it  may  be  mixed  with  animal 
manure,  and  subjected  to  the  trampling  of  the  animals. 

As  fuel,  also,  it  answers  a  good  purpose  in  the  evaporating  fur- 
naces, where  special  provision  is  made  for  burning  it ;  but  in  ra 
countiy  such  as  ours,  where  fuel  is  generally  so  abundant  and 
cliaap,  and  when  it  is  generally  known  that  the  material  itself  is 
much  more  valuable  for  other  important  purposes,  such  uses  of  it 
will  no  doubt  ere  long  be  discontinued  on  the  score  of  economy. 

The  fiber  of  sorghum  possesses  in  a  pre-eminent  degree  the 
properties  of  toughness  and  strength.  It  has  already  been  used  for 
the  manufacture  of  paper.  The  important  preparation  which  it 
receives  by  the  powerful  mechanical  action  of  the  mill,  the  condi- 
tion of  extreme  subdivision  to  which  it  is  reduced,  particularly 
after  being  twice  rolled,  and  the  facility  with  which  by  a  proper 
process  of  exhaustion  other  valuable  products,  amply  compensat- 
ing for  the  work,  may  be  separated  from  the  purified  fiber,  are  con- 
siderations demanding  attention.  Not  less  than  8  to  9  per  cent,  of 
the  original  weight  of  the  stem  (2,OOD  to  3,500  pounds  per  acre)  is 
pure  cellular  fiber.  It  will  be  readily  comprehended  that  at  the 
ordinary  price  of  paper  stock  of  the  same  quality,  the  value  of  this 
material  will  soon  be  appreciated,  and  in  view  of  our  heavy  im- 
portations of  paper-making  substances  its  home  manufacture  will 
soon  become  very  important.  The  fiber  from  corn  begasse  may  be 
employed  in  a  similar  manner. 

No  directions  can  be  given  as  to  the  best  method,  in  its  details, 
of  utilizing  these  substances  until  certain  tests  now  being  made 
shall  be  concluded ;  but  the  results  will  be  published  as  early  as 
practicable. 

2. — Coloring  Matter. 

It  has  been  known  for  some  years  past  that  the  Chinese  produce 
in  fabrics  of  silk  and  wool  a  baautif ul  red  color,  which  is  derived 
from  the  seeds  of  sorghum.  Experiments  madeT  both  in  this 


COLORING  MATTER.  83 

i 

country  and  in  Europe  likewise,  show  that  the  same  dye  may  be 
obtained  from  the  crushed  canes.  For  this  purpose  they  must  be 
sheltered  from  the  rains  after  they  are  received  from  the  mill,  and 
thrown  in  close  piles  until  fermentation  sets  in.  Afterward  the 
heaps  must  be  opened  and  stirred  frequently  to  prevent  heating, 
which  would  destroy  the  coloring  matter.  When  their  color  has 
changed  to  a  deep  red  or  reddish  brown,  they  are  then  cut  up, 
washed,  and  dried.  A  weak  lye  of  caustic  potash  or  soda  may  be 
used  to  extract  the  color  from  them.  By  neutralizing  this  alkaline 
solution  with  a  weak  solution  of  oil  of  vitriol  the  color  falls  in  the 
form  of  red  flakes,  which  are  easily  soluble  in  alcohol,  alkalies, 
and  diluted  acids.* 

Mr.  Henry  Erni,  formerly  chemist  in  the  National  Agricultural 
Department,  contributes  the  following  information,  derived  from 
experiments  conducted  by  himself ;  f  up  to  this  time,  however,  the 
matter  seems  to  have  attracted  no  attention  : 

"  The  simplest  solvent  is  alcohol,  (very  expensive  at  present.) 
Dilute  acids  were  resorted  to  with  very  good  success,  and  at  an  ex- 
pense and  trouble  scarcely  worth  mentioning.  The  seeds  were 
boiled  in  vinegar,  or  in  water  to  which  oil  of  vitriol  had  been  added 
b3fore  heating,  until  the  mixture  tasted  as  acid  as  vinegar.  Other 
acids,  such  as  tartaric,  oxalic,  &c.,  can  be  used,  but  are  more  ex- 
pensive. When  the  liquid  assumes  a  red,  or  rather  an  intense 
orange  color,  it  is  ready  for  use.  The  articles  to  be  colored  are  at 
first  brought  into  the  hot  solution,  and  agitated  until  the  color  no 
longer  increases.  They  are  at  once  removed  and  dipped  into  a 
weak  solution  of  salt  of  tin,  (chloride  of  tin,)  obtained  by  dissolving 
tin  in  hydrochloric  acid.  They  are  then  exposed  to  tho  air  for  a 
short  time  and  washed. 

u  Cotton  mid  silk  may  thus  be  colored  red.  Wool  turns  to  a 
beautiful  purple,  and  an  almost  unlimited  variety  of  colors  and 
shades  may  be  obtained  by  substituting  for  salts  of  tin  other  mor- 
dants. All  the  various  shades  of  red,  purple,  orange,  gray,  &c., 

*  A.  Winters,  in  Liebeg's  Jaresbericht,  1859,  p.  75-i,  quoted  by  Wetherill,  Ag. 
Eep.  1S62,  p.  535. 
t  Rep.  Dept.  Ag.,  1864,  p,  532. 


84  APPENDIX  C. 

are  thus  produced  from  the  same  bath,  the  cloths  being  afterward 
drawn  through  solutions  of  proto-chloride  of  tin,  bichromate  of 
potash,  sulphate  of  copper,  ammonia,  lime-water,  subnitrate  of 
bismuth,  &c.  Yellow  is  produced  by  adding  to  the  seed  sufficient 
nitric  acid  to  form  a  thick  mushy  mass.  Too  much  acid  will  make 
a  straw  color. 

"  The  dye  turns  solid  by  standing,  and  may  thus  be  stored.  To 
dye  silk  or  wool  yellow  the  solid  dye  is  dissolved  in  boiling  water, 
the  goods  dipped  into  it  and  afterwards  washed. 

"  Cotton  has  the  least  attraction  for  sorghum  dyes,  while  the 
wool  receives  the  brightest  colors.  The  same  dye  is  developed  in 
the  stalks." 

The  extraction  of  the  coloring  matter,  if  properly  conducted, 
may  be  accomplished  without  injury  to  the  fiber  of  the  begasse, 
and  the  coloring  matter  so  obtained  may  be  augmented  largely  by 
the  exhaustion  of  the  seed  hulls,  (glumes,)  from  which  water,  es- 
pecially if  acidulated  or  alkalized,  extracts  it  very  readily. 

3. —  Cerosie. 

Every  one  has  noticed  the  peculiar  plum-like  bloom  covering  the 
stems  of  ripened  sorghum.  It  is  found  on  their  surface  in  such 
condition  as  to  be  scraped  off  in  considerable  amount,  with  a  knife, 
In  the  form  of  a  white  powder.  More  careful  examination  reveals 
its  presence  in  the  hard  exterior  layers  outside  the  pith.  It  covers 
the  stem  at  the  joints,  especially  beneath  the  sheathing  bases  of  the 
leaves.  It  is  found  most  abundantly  in  ripe  cane.  This  substance 
seems  to  be  identical  with  cerosie,  or  the  peculiar  vegetable  wax 
found  on  the  exterior  of  the  southern  sugar-cane.  It  is  hard,  dry, 
and  pulverizable,  somewhat  resembling  spermaceti,  or  white  wax, 
in  appearance  when  pure,  but  its  melting  point  is  much  higher, 
(about  194°  F.*)  The  only  experiments  yet  made  upon  it  seem  to 
have  been  those  conducted  in  Algeria  shortly  after  sorghum  was 
first  introduced  there  from  France,  f  By  scraping  the  stems  of  a 
lot  of  ripe  canes  with  a  knife  it  was  estimated  that  108  kilo- 
grammes 400  grammes  of  the  substance  could  be  collected  to  the 
hectare,  (or  about  110  pounds  par  acre.) 
*  Goessmann.  t  Hardy. 


CEROSIE.  85 

Cerosie  should  be  of  equal  value  to  white  wax  or  solid  paraffine. 
A  prominent  purpose  which  it  seems  designed  to  serve  in  the  econ- 
omy of  the  plant  is  to  form,  with  the  silicious  coating  and  the  close 
exterior  layers  of  cells  of  the  stem,  a  barrier  to  the  evaporation  of 
the  matured  juices.  Goessmann  estimates  the  quantity  at  0.50  per 
cent,  of  the  stalk,  which  would  be  180  to  240  pounds  per  acre. 

It  is  said  that  the  scum  from  the  juice  of  the  sugar-cane  in 
Louisiana  contains,  when  dried,  50  per  cent,  of  this  substance,  and 
if  it  is  found  to  a  similar  extent  in  that  of  sorghum  its  extraction 
by  the  use  of  a  suitable  solvent  would  be  a  source  of  considerable 
profit.  But  much  the  larger  proportion  of  it  is  left  in  the  begasse, 
and  when  the  latter  is  employed  for  paper  stock  its  extraction  is  a 
necessity. 

It  may  be  manufactured  into  candles,  or  in  solution  in  benzine 
it  may  be  employed  to  render  wooden  tanks  impervious  to  fluids  ; 
in  short,  to  serve  all  the  useful  purposes  of  paraffine.  Its  melting 
point  being  higher  it  may  be  used  sometimes  to  advantage  where 
the  latter  is  inapplicable. 

This  substance  should  not  be  confounded  with  a  fatty  substance 
which  exists  in  less  quantity  in  corn  and  cane  stems,  and  which  is 
separable  in  a  somewhat  similar  way.  This  oily  matter  contains 
in  a  large  degree  the  peculiar  odor  and  flavor  of  the  plant  from  which 
it  is  derived.  The  juice  contains  it;  but  it  separates  entirely  by 
the  action  of  solution  B,  which  breaks  up  the  combination  in  which 
it  occurs. 

4. — Alcohol. 


The  production  of  alcohol,  largely  as  a  secondary  product,  does 
not  enter  into  the  plan  of  a  sugar  factory.  The  expensiveness  of 
the  apparatus  required,  the  extensive  scale  upon  which  the  work 
must  be  carried  on  as  a  distinct  department,  taken  in  connection  with 
the  very  serious  impediments  thrown  in  its  way  by  the  operation  of 
our  revenue  laws,  are  most  serious  objections.  Besides,  its  profitable 
manufacture  in  connection  with  sugar  works  is  presumptive  evi- 
dence of  an  entirely  unnecessary  condition  of  things  existing  there. 


86  APPENDIX  C. 

It  presupposes  in  such  an  establishment  the  regular  conversion  of 
sugar  in  large  amount  into  uncrystallizable  material,  and  its  com- 
parative worthlessness  for  other  use. 

As  an  economical  source  for  the  manufacture  of  commercial 
alcohol,  as  compared  with  grain,  these  juices  present  great  advan- 
tages. Each  ton  of  sugar  which  they  contain  is  equivalent  to  173.2 
gallons  of  90  per  cent,  alcohol,  (specific  gravity  0.8228.)  But 
their  capacity  to  produce  alcohol  can  never  bs  brought  into  com- 
petition with  their  capacity  to  produce  sugar  under  any  ordinary 

circumstances. 

5. —  Vinegar. 

The  manufacture  of  vinegar  from  weak,  purified  saccharine 
juices  is  profitable  in  certain  localities  and  to  a  certain  extent. 
The  space  and  vessels  required,  the  bulkiness  of  the  product, 
the  limited  demand  for  it,  and  the  existence  of  other  sources 
from  which  it  may  be  profitably  derived,  will  always  limit  its  pro- 
duction from  this  source. 

The  addition  of  yeast  seems  necessary  to  produce  the  regular 
alcoholic  and  acetic  fermentation  in  these  juices,  and,  to  prepare 
them  for  this  purpose,  they  should  simply  be  limed  to  produce 
slight  alkalinity,  heated  to  boiling,  and  the  clear  liquid  diluted  to 
about  4°  Beaume's  hydrometer.  The  fermentation  may  be  eon- 
ducted  in  casks  somewhat  more  than  half  filled  with  the  liquid;  a 
cupful  of  fresh  yeast  must  be  added  to  each  cask,  and  the  liquid 
exposed  to  the  air,  the  temperature  at  the  first  not  being  below 
65°  F. 

Analysis  of  Dried  Sugar-corn. 

Samples  taken  of  the  immature  grain  of  StowelPs  evergreen 
sugar-corn,  prepared  August,  1877,  from  it  when  in  proper  edible 
condition,  by  boiling  the  corn  in  the  ear  for  about  five  minutes, 
cutting  it  from  the  cob  with  a  sharp  knife  and  drying  it  as  rapidly 
as  possible  upon  metallic  plates  at  a  regulated  temperature,  (about 
225°  F.)  For  the  purpose  of  comparison,  I  append  also  a  recent 
analysis  of  the  mature  grain  of  Pennsylvania  yellow  corn,  made 
by  Dr.  Win.  McMurtrie,  chemist  of  the  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture, and  published  in  the  annual  report  for  1873,  (p.  1780 


ANALYSIS  OI1  DRIED  SUGAR  CORN.  87 

Dried  Sugar-corn, 

(green.) 

Moisture        .        .        .  7.12 

Oil         ....  4.20 

Sugar    ....  3.52 

Gum      ....  42.52 

Starch   ....  35.50        . 

*Albumeuoids  and  gluten  3.02 

Cellulose       ...  2.62 

Ash       ....  1.50 

100.00  100.00 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  proportion  of  these  substances  in  the 
dried  sugar-corn  is  not  quite  equal  to  one-third  of  that  contained 
in  the  ripened  yellow  corn  ;  but  this  difference  is  due  chiefly  to  the 
loss  of  gluten  (diastase)  occasioned  by  the  cutting  off  of  the  germinal 
point  of  the  grain  of  the  green,  corn — nearly  one-third  of  its  sub- 
stance— in  the  usual  process  employed  in  preparing  it  for  drying. 
This  circumstance,  taken  in  connection  with  the  fact  that  the  cob 
of  the  green  corn  is  exceeding  rich  in  saccharine  matter,  gum,  &c., 
indicates  the  very  high  value  of  the  cob  with  the  adherent  portion 
of  the  grain  for  stock-feeding  purposes.  The  pith  of  the  green 
cob  is  large,  solid,  and  rich  in  sugar  and  gum.  I  regret  that  I  am 
not  prepared  at  this  time  to  furnish  an  anatysis  of  the  cob  in  this 
condition. 

The  fatty  matter  or  oil  in  the  dried  sugar-corn  is  about  equal  to 
that  in  matured  specimens  of  corn  generally,  especially  the  white 
varieties,  although  it  is  less  than  in  the  yellow  corn,  with  which  it 
is  here  more  directly  compared.  The  saccharine  matter  is  much 
greater  than  in  the  latter,  and  by  the  application  of  the  proper 
chemical  tests,  it  is  to  be  found  almost  entirely  crystallizable  sugar. 
The  sugar  of  the  grain  of  ripened  corn  is  generally  glucose. 

The  most  marked  peculiarity  of  the  desiccated  sugar-corn  is  the 
very  large  proportion  of  gummy  matter  which  it  contains  (gum 
and  dextrine)  as  compared  with  that  of  true  starch. 

*  For  convenience  the  azotized.  substances  arc  here  classed  together. 


88  APPENDIX   D. 

Taken  altogether,  this  substance  as  an  article  of  human  food 
exhibits  peculiarities  not  found  in  any  other  grain,  and  properly 
prepared  it  is  light,  rich,  nutritive  and  easily  digested. 


APPENDIX  D. 

It  is  by  no  means  certain  that  all  the  different  kinds  of  sorghum 
existent  in  Asia  and  Southern  Africa  have  been  introduced  into 
this  countiy  or  Europe.  As  already  mentioned,  some  of  the  sorts 
exhibited  in  the  Chinese  Department  at  the  Centennial  Exhibition 
at  Philadelphia  in  1876,  seem  to  be  new. 

The  Caffrarian  varieties  brought  over  by  Mr.  Leonard  Wray  in 
1857,  have  encountered  influences  here  which  have  resulted  in 
great  changes  in  their  appearance  and  saccharine  properties.  Those, 
as  well  as  the  Chinese  varieties,  have  heretofore  commonly  been 
classed  as  one  species.  English  botanists,  however,  who  have 
studied  the  flora  of  the  Cape  Colony,  within  recent  years,  enumer- 
ate two  native  species.  It  would  be  interesting  to  know  what  arc 
their  characteristics  and  whether  we  have  representatives  of  botli 
here.  Harvey's  large  work  gives  merely  the  generic  characters  but 
docs  not  describe  the  species. 

"  Sorghum. — Spikelets  at  the  end  of  the  twigs  of  a  branching 
panicle — either  female,  male  or  neuter — dissimilar.  Outer  glumes 
2 ;  in  the  fertile  and  male  spikelets  coriaceous,  hardening  with 
scarcely  obvious  immersed  nerves ;  in  the  neuter  spikelets  mem- 
braneous, nerved.  Flowering  glumes  thinly  membraneous,  cil- 
iate,  the  lower  neuter,  the  upper  fertile,  with  a  short,  twisted  awn, 
or  awnless.  Palea  small,  narrow  scales  fimbricate.  Seed  thick, 
short,  hard,  closely  wrapped  in  the  hardened  glume  and  palea." 
Necs  1.  c.,  p.  85. 

"  Tall,  strong,  broad-leaved  grasses  with  villcus  or  pubescent 
glumes,  grain  used  as  food  in  India."  Two  Cape  species. 

"The  Genera  of  South  African  plants,  arranged  according  to  the 
natural  system,  by  William  Henry  Harvey,  F.  R.  S.,  &c.,  edited  by 
Dr.  J.  D.  Hooker.  Cape  Town  and  London,  1868,  p.  442." 


THE  COPPER  TEST. 


APPENDIX  E. 

THE  COPPER  TEST — FeJiling's  Solution. — This  method  depends 
upon  the  property  possessed  by  grape  or  fruit  sugar — but  not  by 
cane  sugar — of  reducing  to  the  state  of  suboxide  the  hydrated 
protoxide  of  copper  when  the  latter  is  presented  to  it  in  an  alka- 
line solution,  and  the  temperature  of  the  mixture  is  elevated  to 
the  boiling  point.  The  quantity  of  the  oxide  of  copper  reduced 
is  proportional  to  the  quantity  of  grape  sugar  in  the  solution, 
but  uniform  results  are  not  obtained  except  in  a  nicely-regulated 
alkaline  solution.  Feliling^s  solution  is  of  this  character,  and  is 
not  liable  to  decomposition  at  ordinary  temperatures.  It  may  be 
prepared  as  follows : 

40  grammes  of  sulphate  of  copper,  160  grammes  of  neutral  tar- 
trate  of  potash  (or  200  grammes  of  tartrate  of  soda)  are  dissolved 
and  added  to  700-800  c.  c.  (cubic  centimeters — grammes)  of  caus- 
tic soda,  specific  gravity  1.12.  This  dilute  with  water  to  1154.5 
cubic  centimeters.  Of  this  solution 

I  cubic  centimeter-  \  °-oor/)  ffrape  su"ar 
~  i  0.0043  cane  sugar 

or  grains  instead  of  grammes — and  then  1  grain=0.0050  grape 
sugar,  without  further  change  of  calculation.     And 

100  parts  of  grape  sugar )  _220.y  CuO  or 
95  parts  of  cane  j  ~19SC2  O  * 

Fresenius,  in  his  late  able  treatise  upon  Quantitative  Chemical 
Analysis,  gives  very  minute  directions  for  the  successful  applica- 
tion of  this  test,  which,  somewhat  condensed,  I  insert  below.  It 
will  be  observed  that  sorghum  juice,  being  a  mixed  solution  of 
sugars,  must  be  subjected  to  two  experiments ;  one  portion  of  a 
given  sample  to  determine  the  per  cent,  of  grape  sugar,  and  an- 
other to  determine  that  of  cane  sugar  by  reducing  the  latter  to  the 

*  Dr.  Ure. 


90  APPENDIX    E. 

condition  of  grape  sugar,  and  applying  the  same  test.  By  sub- 
tracting the  quantity  of  grape  sugar  indicated  by  the  first  experi- 
ment from  that  indicated  by  the  second,  we  obtain  the  quantity  of 
grape  sugar  into  which  the  cane  sugar  was  converted,  and  thence 
by  a  simple  calculation  the  cane  sugar  itself,  from  the  data  given 
above. 

The  cane  juice  to  be  tested  should  be  a  clear  solution,  prepared 
by  precipitating  with  subacetate  of  lead,  and  filtering  through  bone- 
black  as  before  recommended,  or  by  treating  about  15  c.  c.*  of  the 
crude  boiling  juice  with  a  few  drops  of  milk  of  lime,  filtering  through 
animal  charcoal,  washing  the  precipitate  thoroughly  on  the  filter, 
adding  the  washings  to  the  filtrate,  and  diluting  it  to  15  or  20 
times  its  original  volume.  Add  12  drops  of  dilute  sulphuric  acid 
(SOs  IIOx5  water)  and  boil  the  mixture  from  1  to  2  hours,  adding 
water  as  it  evaporates.  This  operation  is  best  conducted  in  a 
steam-bath.  Neutralize  the  free  acid  by  means  of  a  dilute  solution 
of  carbonate  of  soda. 

Tlie  sugar  solution  must  ba  Idglily  dilute,  containing  only  one- 
half,  or,  at  most,  1  per  cent,  of  sugar.  If  in  a  first  experiment  the 
sugar  solution  is  too  concentrated,  dilute  it  with  a  definite  quan- 
tity of  water  and  repeat  the  experiment. 

The  copper  solution  preimred,  as  directed  by  Fresenius,  gives 
very  accurate  results.  |  "  Dissolve  exactly  34.G32  grammes  of  pure 
crystallized  sulphate  of  copper,  completely  freed  from  adhering 
moisture  by  pulverizing  and  pressing  between  sheets  of  blotting 
paper,  in  about  200  c.  c.  of  water.  Dissolve  in  another  vessel 
173  grammes  of  perfectly  pure  crystallized  tartrate  of  soda  and 
potassa  in  480  c.  c.  of  pure  solution  of  soda  of  114  sp.  grav.  Add 
the  first  solution  gradually  to  the  second,  and  dilute  the  deep  blue 
clear  liquid  exactly  to  1000  c.  c.  Every  10  c.  c.  of  this  solution 
contains  0.34G32  grm.  of  sulphate  of  copper,  and  correspond  ex- 
actly to  0.050  grm.  of  anhydrous  grape  sugar.  Keep  the  solution 
in  a  cool,  dark  place,  in  well-stoppered  bottles  filled  to  the  top,  as 
absorption  by  carbonic  acid  would  lead  to  the  separation  of  sub- 

*c.  c.  cubic  centimeters.    See  table  V. 

t  Fresenius's  Q,uant.  Caem.  Analysis.    London,  1860,  pp.  576-9. 


THE  PROCESS.  91 

oxide  of  copper  upon  mere  exposure  to  heat.  This  might  be  pre- 
vented, however,  by  the  fresh  addition  of  solution  of  soda.  Before 
using  the  solution,  boil  10  c.  c.  of  it  for  some  minutes,  by  way  of 
trial,  with  40  c.  c.  of  water,  or  dilute  solution  of  soda  if  there  is 
reason  to  believe  that  the  fluid  has  absorbed  carbonic  acid ;  if  this 
operation  produces  the  least  change  in  the  fluid,  and  causes  t<he 
separation  of  even  the  smallest  quantity  of  suboxide,  the  solution 
is  unfit  for  use. 

u  The  process. — Pour  10  c.  c.  of  the  copper  solution  into  a  por- 
celain dish,  add  40  c.  c.  of  water,  or  very  dilute  solution  of  soda  if 
required,  heat  to  gentle  ebullition,  and  allow  the  sugar  solution  to 
drop  slowly  and  gradually  into  the  fluid  from  a  burette  or  pipette 
divided  in  l-10th  c.  c.  After  the  addition  of  the  first  few  drops,  the 
liquid  shows  a  greenish-brown  tint,  owing  to  the  suboxide  and 
hydrated  suboxide  suspended  in  the  blue  solution.  In  proportion 
as  more  of  the  sugar  solution  is  added,  the  precipitate  becomes 
more  copious,  acquires  a  redder  tint,  and  subsides  more  speedily. 
When  the  precipitate  presents  a  deep-red  color,  remove  the  lamp, 
allow  the  precipitate  to  subside  a  little,  and  give  to  the  dish  an 
inclined  position,  which  will  enable  you  readily  to  detect  the  least 
bluish-green  tint.  To  make  quite  sure,  however,  pour  a  little  of 
the  clear  supernatant  liquid  into  a  test  tube,  add  a  drop  of  the 
sugar  solution  and  apply  heat.  If  there  remains  the  least  trace  of 
salt  of  copper  undecomposed,  a  yellowish-red  precipitate  will  form, 
appearing  at  first  like  a  cloud  in  the  fluid.  In  that  case  pour  the 
contents  of  the  tube  into  the  dish,  and  continue  adding  the  solu- 
tion of  sugar  until  the  reaction  is  complete.  The  original  amount 
used  of  the  solution  of  sugar  contains  0.050  grammes  of  anhydrous 
grape  sugar. 

"  When  the  operation  has  terminated,  ascertain  whether  it  has 
fully  succeeded— that  is,  whether  the  solution  really  contains 
neither  copper,  sugar,  nor  a  brown  product  of  the  decomposition 
of  the  latter.  To  this  end  filter  off  a  portion  of  the  fluid  while 
still  quite  hot.  The  filtrate  must  be  colorless,  (without  the  least 
brownish  tinge.)  Heat  a  portion  of  it  with  a  drop  of  the  copper 
solution,  acidify  two  other  portions,  and  test  the  one  with  ferrocy- 


92  APPENDIX   E. 

anide  of  potassium,  the  other  with  sulphuretted  hydrogen.  Neither 
of  these  tests  must  produce  the  slightest  alteration.  If  the  fluid 
contains  a  perceptible  quantity  of  either  oxide  of  copper  or  sugar, 
this  is  a  proof  that  too  much  or  too  little  of  the  latter  has  been 
added,  .and  the  experiment  must  accordingly  be  repeated.  The 
results  are  constant  and  very  satisfactory.  Bear  in  mind  that  the 
solution  of  sulphate  of  copper  must  always  remain  strongly  alka- 
line ;  should  the  sugar  solution  be  acid,  some  more  solution  of  soda 
must  be  added." 

Second  Method. — This  may  be  resorted  to  in  cases  in  which  from 
the  dark  color  of  the  saccharine  fluid  it  is  difficult  to  determine  the 
exact  point  at  which  the  process  of  reduction  and  separation  is 
accomplished.  In  this  case  the  solution  of  copper  may  be  used  in 
excess,  and  the  suboxide  which  precipitates  determined. 

"  This  requires  the  same  solutions  as  the  first.  Pour  20  c.  c.  of 
the  solution  of  .copper  and  80  c.  c.  of  water,  or  of  highly  dilute 
solution  of  soda,  if  required,  (or  a  larger  quantity  of  the  copper 
solution  diluted  with  water,  or  solution  of  soda  in  the  same  pro- 
portion,) into  a  porcelain  dish.  Add  a  measured  quantity  of  the 
dilute  sugar  solution,  but  not  sufficient  to  reduce  the  whole  of  the 
oxide  of  copper,  and  heat  for  about  10  minutes  on  the  water-bath. 
When  the  reaction  is  completed,  wash  the  precipitated  suboxide  of 
copper  by  decantation  with  boiling  water.  Pass  the  decanted  fluid 
through  a  weighed  filter,  dried  at  212°  F.,  then  transfer  the  precip- 
itate also  to  the  filter,  dry  at  212°  F.,  and  weigh.  Or  ignite  the 
suboxide  of  copper  with  access  of  air,  and  convert  it  completely 
into  oxide  by  treating  with  fuming  nitric  acid. 

U100  parts  of  anhydrous  grape  sugar  correspond  to  220.5*  of 
oxide  of  copper,  or  198.2  of  suboxide  of  copper,f  or  155.55  of  iron 
converted  from  the  state  of  sesquichloride  to  that  of  protochloride. 
In  the  application  of  this  method,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that 

*Fehling  obtained  as  highest  result  219.4  grammes  of  oxide  of  copper. 

t  Neubauer  found  in  his  experiments  with  starch  that  0.05  of  the  latter  cor- 
respond to  0.112  of  suboxide  of  copper.  As  90  of  starch  gives  100  of  grape 
sugar,  0.05  of  the  former  correspond  to  0  0555  of  the  latter.  Accordingly  100  of 
grape  sugar  gives  actually  201.62  of  suboxide  of  copper,  instead  of  198.2. 


SECOND   METHOD.  93 

the  separated  suboxicle  of  copper  will,  upon  cooling  of  the  super- 
natant fluid,  gradually  redissolve  to  oxide,  heing  reconverted  into 
this  by  the  oxygen  of  the  atmosphere.  Hence  the  necessity  of 
washing  the  precipitate  by  decantation  with  boiling  water." 

The  details  of  this  method  are  thus  given  at  length,  for  the  rea- 
son that  it  is  the  test  most  depended  upon  for  determining  the 
quantity  of  grape  sugar  in  a  solution.  With  the  exception,  per- 
haps, of  that  given  below,  it  is  the  only  purely  chemical  process 
known  that  may  be  implicitly  relied  upon  for  its  accuracy,  and  by 
means  of  which  the  result  is  reached  with  facility  and  dispatch. 

An  elegant  quantitative  test  for  cane  and  grape  sugar  has  been 
proposed  by  M.  Peligot,  which  I  have  found  to  give  uniform  results. 
E  give  this  method  as  described  by  Dr.  Ure.  "Peligot's  method 
depends  upon  the  definite  constitution  of  sugar  lime,  (or  saccharate 
of  lime,)  its  greater  solubility  in  water  than  in  lime  alone,  and  the 
unalterability  of  this  solution  by  heat.  Soubeiran  found  sugar  lime 
to  consist  of  3  equivalents  of  lime  to  2  equivalents  of  sugar — i.  e., 
84  parts  lime  to  342  sugar,  or  about  1  to  4.  Ten  grammes  of  sugar 
dissolved  in  75  cubic  centimeters  of  water,  ground  up  with  10 
grammes  of  slaked  lime,  filtered,  and  again  filtered  through  the 
lime,  10  c.  c.  of  the  filtrate  diluted  with  2  to  3  deciliters  of  water 
and  tinctured  with  a  little  litmus,  are  carefully  neutralized  with  a 
measured  volume  of  dilute  sulphuric  acid,  (21  grin,  oil  of  vitriol  in 
1  liter  water,)  and  the  quantity  of  acid  used  noted.  It  gives  the 
quantity  of  lime  neutralized,  and  from  the  above  proportion  the 
quantity  of  sugar  present. 

u  If  cane  sugar  is  to  be  examined  for  starch  or  grape  sugar,  one 
test  is  made  as  above,  and  another  in  which  the  liquid  is  heated  to 
212°  F.,  and  then,  when  cool,  tested  with  the  acid.  The  lime  solu- 
tion with  cane  sugar  becomes  cloudy  by  heat  but  clarifies  on  cool- 
ing, while  if  grape  sugar  be  present  it  becomes  brownish  yellow, 
and  requires  much  less  acid  for  neutralization.  Indeed,  a  deciliter 
of  starch  sugar  solution  requires  4  c.  c.  of  the  test  acid,  or  just  as 
much  as  lime-water  itself. 

"The  amount  of  sugar  in  a  solution  is  estimated  by  the  amount 
of  lime  which  it  will  dissolve,  and  the  lime  is  determined  alkali- 
metrically  by  mean's  of  the  acid.  A  table  has  been  constructed  by 
Peligot  for  calculating  the  results."  (See  Table  IV.) 


94  APPENDIX   E. 

Unless  there  is  some  special  reason  for  a  different  inference,  th& 
organic  matter,  other  than  sugar  and  salts,  in  a  given  sample  oi 
fresh,  unclarified  sorghum  or  maize  juice  may  be  approximately 
estimated  at  1 .6  to  1.7  per  cent.  The  specific-gravity  bottle  or  the 
hydrometer  will  indicate  the  per  cent,  of  cane  sugar  only  in  a  pure 
solution.  Therefore,  if  the  amount  of  the  uncrystallizable  sugar 
or  glucose  simply  be  determined  in  the  sample,  the  crystallizable 
sugar  maybe  estimated  at  the  \veightper  cent,  indicated  by  the 
hydrometer,  diminished  by  that  of  the  glucose  previously  ascer- 
tained, added  to  the  percentage  of  organic  matter  and  salts  assumed 
as  above.  The  rapidity  with  which  this  can  be  done,  and  its  near 
approximation  to  the  truth,  will  commend  it  to  the  practical  opera- 
tor as  being  the  simplest  and  best  test  within  his  reach.  There  is 
no  reason  why  after  a  little  practice  any  careful  person  may  not  be 
able  to  test  the  value  of  any  sample  of  cane  approximately,  within 
ten  minutes  after  it  has  passed  into  his  hands. 

The  hydrometer  of  Beaume  is  the  common  form,  but  the  scales 
of  different  instruments  do  not  always  correspond,  and  hence  the 
continued  liability  to  error.  Every  instrument  before  being  used 
should  be  subjected  to  the  following  test :  Place  the  hydrometer  in 
pure  water  at  a  temperature  of  60°  F.,  and  the  point  near  the  top 
of  the  stem  to  which  it  sinks  is  the  0  of  the  scale.  Prepare  a  solu- 
tion of  15  parts  of  common  salt  in  85  parts  of  water  by  weight, 
and  at  the  same  temperature  as  the  above,  and  the  place  to  which 
it  sinks  should  mark  15°  of  the  scale.  The  value  of  each  degree  of 
this  scale  expressed  in  specific  gravities  and  correspondent  per 
cent,  of  sugar  are  given  in  Table  II. 

A  specific  gravity  bottle  affords  a  convenient  means  of  testing 
the  accuracy  of  the  hydrometer,  and  when  an  extreme  degree  of 
accuracy  is  required  it  should  be  used  in  its  place.  It  is  a  bottle 
containing  just  1,000  grains,  or  100  grammes  of  distilled  water  at 
GO0  F.,  when  the  stopper  is  inserted  and  the  outside  of  the  bottle 
is  wiped  dry.  The  stopper  is  of  ground  glass,  with  a  hole  through 
its  center,  or  a  groove  cut  in  its  side  with  a  file  to  admit  of  the 
escape  of  any  superfluous  liquid  in  filling  the  bottle.  When  such 
a  bottle  cannot  be  had  a  phial  of  any  capacity  with  a  similar  stop- 
per may  be  used,  and  the  exact  weight  of  watef  at  60°  F.  which  it 


THE   SACCHAROMETER.  95 

will  hold,  ascertained.  The  specific  gravity  of  the  liquid  to  be  ex- 
amined is  obtained  by  filling  the  bottle  with  it,  and  dividing  its 
weight  by  the  weight  of  the  water  which  it  will  hold,  previously 
ascertained.  , 

Thus  if  the  weight  of  the  bottle  full  of  water  at  60°  is  1,000 
grains,  and  the  weight  of  the  solution  of  sugar  at  60°  F.  is  1,083 
grains,  the  specific  gravity  of  the  solution  will  be  1,083,  divided  by 
1,000,  or  1.083.  Referring  to  Table  II,  we  find  that  the  specific 
gravity  1.083  corresponds  to  11°  Beaume's  hydrometer,  or  to  20  per 
cent,  of  cane  sugar. 

The  saccharometer  is  a  hydrometer  upon  which  the  per  cent,  of 
sugar  may  be  read  off  directly,  without  reference  to  a  table,  and 
this  form  should  be  in  general  use. 


I. 

Table  "showing  the  quantity  of  sugar  contained  in  one  hundred 
pounds  of  expressed  cane  juice,  or  syrup,  of  good  quality,  and  also 
of  the  quantity  of  water  that  must  be  evaporated,  to  reduce  the 
same  to  the  state  of  saturated  syrup  at  each  degree.  A  saturated 
solution  of  very  pure  sugar  contains  five  parts  of  sugar  and  three 
parts  of  water.  This  is  indicated  by  34°  of  Beaum6's  saccharome- 
ter, at  the  temperature  of  82°  F." — Dutrone. 


TABLES. 

Table. 


Degrees  of 
donsity    by 
Beau  me's 
scale. 

Weight  of  sugar  in  each  100 
Ibs.  of  juice  or  syrup. 

Weight  of  water  in  each  ICO 
Ibs.  of  juice  or  syrup,  bo- 
yond  the   water  of  solu- 
tion. 

Ibs. 

oz. 

dr.   . 

Ibs. 

oz. 

dr. 

1 

1 

13 

6 

97 

... 

15 

2 

3 

10 

12 

94 

i 

14 

3    „ 

5 

8 

3 

91 

2 

13 

4 

7 

5 

10 

88 

3     • 

12 

5 

9 

3 

... 

85 

4 

11 

6 

11 

... 

7 

82 

5 

10 

7 

12 

13 

14 

79 

G 

9 

8 

14 

11 

4 

70 

7 

8 

9 

1G 

8 

11 

73 

8 

7 

10 

18 

6 

1 

70 

9 

6 

11 

20 

3 

8 

67 

10 

5 

12 

2-> 

... 

15 

64 

11 

4 

13 

23 

14 

5 

61 

12 

3 

14 

25 

11 

12 

58 

13 

3 

16 

27 

9 

2 

55 

14 

1 

1C 

29 

6 

9 

52 

15 

1 

17 

31 

4 

... 

50 

... 

-18 

33 

1 

6 

47 

... 

1.5 

19 

34 

14 

13 

44 

1 

14 

20 

36 

12 

3 

41 

2 

13 

21 

38 

9 

10 

38 

3 

12 

22 

40 

7 

1 

35 

4 

11 

23 

42 

4 

7 

32 

5 

10 

24 

44 

1 

14 

29 

6 

9 

2.  "5 

45 

15 

4 

26 

7 

8 

26 

47 

12 

11 

23 

8 

7 

27 

49 

10 

J 

20 

9 

G 

28 

51 

7 

8 

17 

10 

5 

29 

53 

4 

15 

14 

11 

4 

30 

55 

2 

5 

11 

12 

3 

31 

56 

15 

12 

8 

13 

2 

32 

58 

13 

3 

5 

14 

1 

33 

60 

10 

9 

2 

15 

... 

34 

62 

8 

... 

... 

... 

TABLES. 


97 


II. 

Table  by  Dr.  Evans,  showing  the  per  cent,  of  sugar  *  in  solutions 
of  different  degrees  of  density,  according  to  the  scale  of  Beaum6, 
and  corresponding  specific  gravities. 


Degrees  of 
density— 
Beaumc. 

Specific 
gravity. 

Sugar  in 
100  parts. 

Degrees  of 
density  — 
Beaume. 

Specific 
gravity. 

Sugar  in 
100  parts. 

1 

1.007 

.018 

19 

1.152 

.352 

2 

1.014 

.03-3 

20 

1.161 

.370 

3 

1.022 

.052 

21 

1.171 

.388 

4 

1.029 

.070 

22 

1.180 

.406 

5 

1.030 

.087 

23 

1.190 

.424 

G 

1.044 

.104 

24 

1.199 

.443 

7 

1.052 

.124 

25 

1.210 

.4G2 

8 

LOGO 

.144 

26 

1.221 

.481 

9 

1.067 

.1G3 

27 

1.231 

.500 

10 

1,075 

.182 

28 

1.242 

.521 

11 

1.083 

.200 

29 

1.252 

.541 

12 

1.091 

.218 

30 

1.261 

.560 

13 

1.100 

.237 

31 

1.275 

.580 

14 

1.108 

.256 

32 

1.286 

.601 

15 

1.116 

.276 

33 

1.298 

.622 

16 

1125 

.294 

34 

1.309 

.644 

17 

1.134 

.315 

35 

1.321 

.666 

18 

1.143 

.334 

III. 

Table  showing  how  a  saturated  solution  of  sugar  is  affected  by 
being  reduced  to  different  degrees  of  density,  as  indicated  by  the 
thermometer,  commencing  at  the  point  of  saturation.  This  table 
was  prepared  with  great  care  by  Dutrone  from  actual  experiments. 
By  means  of  it  the  number  of  pounds  of  sugar,  which  will  crys- 
tallize in  syrup  of  any  given  density,  as  determined  by  its  tempera- 
ture at  the  boiling  point,  may  be  accurately  predicted,  and  the 
number  of  pounds  of  water  which  it  has  lost  by  evaporation  between 
the  temperature  of  saturation  and  the  given  temperature.  Also  the, 
number  of  pounds  of  sugar  and  water,  respectively,  which  remain, 

*  The  standard  should  be  dry,  finely  powdered  loaf  sugar,  or  pulverized  and 
dry  rock  candy. 


08 


TABLES. 


combined  In  the  form  of  syrup,  (drippings.)  At  81.5°  F.  (22°  Beum.) 
Dutrone  found  that  three  parts  of  water  und  five  parts  of  sugar 
form  a  saturated  solution.  He  formed  a  saturated  syrup,  there- 
fore, consisting  of  GO  pounds  of  water  and  100  pounds  of  sugar, 
and  upon  this  the  table  is  based. 

If  160  pounds  of  such  syrup  be  raued  from  the  boiling  point 
219°  F.  to  232°  F.,  (for  example,)  33  Ibs.  11  oz.  10  dr.  of  water  will 
have  evaporated;  56  pounds  of  sugar  will  crystallize  when  the 
syrup  is  cooled  to  the  proper  temperature  and  treated  in  the  regular 
manner,  and  26  Ibs.  4  oz.  6  dr.  of  water  and  44  Ibs  of  sugar  still 
remain  combined. 

To  determine  this  it  is  necessary  only  to  have  a  thermometer 
which  will  register  accurately  the  temperature  of  the  boiling  syrup. 


Degree  of 
therm't'r 
Fahren- 
heit. 

Weight  of  sugar 
•which  separates 
in  crystals. 

Wright  of 
•water 
evaporated. 

Weight  of  sugar 
yet.  combined 
with  water  in  the 
state  of  syrup. 

Weight  of 
water  still 
combined 
with  sugar 
in  the  state 
of  syrup. 

219 
221 
223 
225.5 
228 
230 
232 
234.5 
237 
239 
241 
243.5 
246 
248 
250 
252.6 
255 
257 
259 
261.5 
264 
266 
268 
270.5 
273 
275 
277 
279.6 

Ibs. 
0 

8 
19 

30 
41 
§2 

66 
60 
63 
66 
69 
72 
75 
77 
80 
83 
85 
87 
88 
90 
91 
92 
94 
95 
97 
98 
99 
100 

oz 

dr. 

Ibs. 

o 

oz. 

dr. 

Ibs. 
100 
92 
80 
70 
59 
48 
44 
39 
36 
33 
30 
27 
r5 

oz. 

dr. 

Ibs. 
60 

oz. 

dr. 

4 
11 
18 

.2 
8 

24 
14 

55 
48 
42 

3 
7 

2 
2 

4 



12 



24 
31 
33 
36 
38 
39 
41 
43 
45 
46 
48 
50 
51 

9 
3 
11 
3 

4 

7 
4 

10 
4 
10 

10 

35 
28 
26 
23 
21 
20 
18 
16 
15 

6 
12 
4 
13 
15 
12 
8 
12 

6 
12 
6 

"e" 

'"5  " 
4 
3 

2 

1 

'•••   • 

11 
12 
13 
14 
15 

7 
5 
3 

'.'.'.',   '. 

7 

7 
1 

4 

•8 
10 

22 
19 
16 
15 
12 
11 
9 
8 
7 
5 
4 
3 
1 
14 

9 
11 
13 

13 
11 
9 
9 

8 
8 
14 

12 

8 
6 

4 

6 
1 
4 

7 
2 
5 



52 
53 
54 
55 
55 
56 
57 
58 
58 
59 
60 

5 
1 

3 

12 
7 
3 
C 
14 
7 

14 
C 

'io' 

10 
8 
8 
8 
10 

12 
10 
15 
12 
9 
14 
11 

7 
6 
5 
4 
4 
3 
2 
1 
1 

10 
14 
15 
12 
4 
8 
12 
9 
1 
8 

2 
10 

"G 
"G 

8 
8 
8 
6 

2 
2 



14 



TABLES.  (J9 

IV. 

Peligot's  table  for  determining  the  per  cent,  of  sugars  in  a  solu- 
tion by  saccharate  of  lime. 


Quantity  of 
sugar  dis- 
solved in  100 
parts  of 
water. 

Density 
of 
Syiup. 

Density  of 
Syrup  when 
saturated 
with  lime. 

.100  parts  of  residue  dried  at 
120°  (L'ent.)  contain— 

Lime. 

Sugar. 

40.0 

1.122 

.179 

21.0 

79.0 

37.5 

1.110 

.175 

20.8 

79.2 

35.0 

1.110 

.166 

20.5 

79.5 

32.5 

1.103 

.159 

*0.3 

79.7 

30.0 

1.09G 

.148 

20.1 

79.9 

27.5 

1.089 

.139 

19.9 

80.1 

25.0 

1.082 

.128 

19.8 

80.2 

22.5 

1.075 

.116 

19.3 

80.7 

20.0 

1.0G8 

.104 

18.8 

81.2 

17.5 

LOGO 

.092 

18.7 

81.3 

15.0 

1.052 

.080 

18.5 

81.5 

12.5 

1.044 

.067 

18.3 

81.7 

10.0 

1.03G 

.053 

18.1 

81.9 

7.5 

1.027 

.040 

16.9 

83.1 

5.0 

1.018 

.026 

15.3 

84.7 

2.5 

1.009 

.014 

13.8 

86.2 

V. 

Tables  of  Weights  and   Measures  officially  recognized  in  the 
United  States  by  act  of  Congress.    (Metric  system.) 

MEASURES  OF  LENGTH. 


Metric  denominations  and  values. 

Equivalents 

in  denominations  in  use. 

Myriameter  .  . 
Kilometer  
Hectometer  .. 
Dekameter  .  .  . 
Meter  
Decimeter  
t  'entimcicr.  .. 
Millimeter  .  .  . 

10,000  meters  .  . 
1,000  meters.. 
100  meters.. 
10  meters.. 
1  meter  .  . 
l-10th  of  a  meter.  . 
1-1  00th  of  a  meter.. 
1  -1000th  of  a  meter.  . 

6.2137  miles. 
0.62137  mile,  or  3,280  feet  and  10  inches. 
328  feet  and  1  inch. 
393  7  inches. 
39.37  inches. 
3.937  inches. 
0.3037  inch. 
0.0394  inch. 

100 


TABLES. 
MEASURES  OF  SURFACE. 


Metric  denominations  and  values. 

Equivalents  in  denominations  in  use. 

Hectare  

10,000  square  meters  .  . 
100  square  meters  .  . 
1  square  ineter   .. 

2.471  acres. 
119.6  square  yards. 
1550  square  inches. 

Are  

Oentare 

MEASURES  OF  CAPACITY. 


METRIC  DENOMINATIONS  AND 

VALUES. 

EQUIVALENTS  IN  DENOMINATIONS 

IN    USE. 

Names. 

a 

Cubic  measure. 

Dry  measure. 

Liquid  or 
wine  measure 

Kiloliter  > 
or  stere  $ 

Hectoliter. 

Dekaliter.. 
Liter 

1,000 

100 
10 

1 

1-10 

1-100 
1-1000 

1  cubic  meter  

1.30S  cubic  yards  

2  bus.  and  3.35  pecks  .  . 
9  08  quarts  

264.17  gallons. 

26  41  7  gallons. 

2.6417  gallons. 
1.0567  quarts. 

0.845  gill. 

0.338  fluid  oz. 
0.27  fluid  drm. 

l-10th  of  a  cubic 
meter  

10  cubic  decimeters. 
1  cubic  decimeter.  . 
£  l-10th  of  a  cubic 
/     decimeter  
<  10    cubic    ccnti- 
£     meters           .  . 

0  90S  quarts 

Deciliter  .  . 

Centiliter. 
Milliliter.  . 

6.1022  cubic  inches... 

0.6102  cubic  ir\ph  
0.061  cubic  inch  

1  cubic  centimeter. 

WEIGHTS. 


METRIC  DENOMINATIONS  AND  VALUE. 

EQUIVALENTS  IN 
DENOMINATIONS 

IN  USE. 

Names. 

No.  of 
grams. 

Weight   of  what  quantity 
of    water   at    maximum 
density. 

Avoirdupois 
weight. 

Millierortonneau 
Quintal  

1,000,000 
100.000 
10,000 
1,000 
100 
10 
1 
1-10 
1-100 
1-1000 

1  cubic  meter  

2204.6  Dounds. 
220  46  bounds. 
2-:>  046  pounds 

1  hectoliter 

Myriagram  
Kilogram  or  kilo. 
Hectogram  
Dekagram  
Gram. 

10  liters 

1  Htor  

2.2046  pounds. 
3  5C74  ounces 

1  deciliter                      

10  cubic  centimeters  

0.3527  ounce. 
15.432  grains. 
1.5432  grains. 
0.1543  grain 
0.0154  grain; 

1  cubic  centimeter 

Decigram  

l-10th  of  a  cubic  centimeter. 
10  cubic  millimeters  

(Centigram  
Milligram 

SYNOPSIS  OF  THE  PROCESS. 


1st.  Heat  the  freshly  expressed  juice  of  cane,  sorghum,  or  maize 
in  a  copper  or  tinned-iron  vessel  to  a  temperature  (as  shown  by  a 
thermometer  suspended  so  that  the  mercury  bulb  is  immersed  in 
the  juice)  of  180°  Fahrenheit,  equal  to  82°  Centigrade. 

2d.  After  the  juice  has  been  heated  to  180°  Fahrenheit,  add  and 
stir  into  it  one  fluid  ounce  of  cream  of  lime  to  each  gallon  of  juice, 
or  from  5  to  7  pounds  (pints)  to  each  100  gallons  of  juice. 

3d.  After  adding  and  stirring  in  the  cream  of  lime,  heat  the  juice 
rapidly  to  the  boiling  point. 

4th.  When  it  begins  to  boil  shut  off  the  heat,  or  remove  the  ves- 
sel containing  the  juice  from  the  fire,  and  so  soon  as  the  sediment 
begins  to  settle,  draw  off  with  a  siphon  (into  tank  as  described  in 
body  of  book)  the  clear  liquid  from  the  top  until  at  least  nine-tenths 
of  the  whole  quantity  of  juice  has  been  thus  removed,  leaving  a 
thick,  muddy  sediment  at  the  bottom. 

5th.  Sweep  out  with  a  broom  this  muddy  sediment  into  a  bag-filter, 
and  add  the  filtrate  as  it  passes  through  the  filter  to  the  clear  liquid 
siphoned  off. 

6th.  To  the  clear  liquid  thus  obtained  in  sections  4th  and  5th, 
and  which  should  be  allowed  to  cool  to  a  temperature  of  150°  Fah- 
renheit (equal  to  66°  Centigrade)  and  not  lower,  there  is  now  added 
of  solution  B  one  fluid  ounce  to  each  gallon  of  juice,  or  5  to  7  pints 
to  each  100  gallons  of  juice.  * 

*  At  least  enough  of  solution  B  is  to  be  added  to  completely  neutralize  the 
lime  in  the  juice ;  and  to  determine  this  point,  a  slip  of  blue  litmus  paper  is 
clipped  into  the  solution,  when,  if  enough  of  solution  B  has  been  added,  tha 
blue  color  will  be  changed  to  red. 


102  SYNOPSIS    OF   THE    PROCESS. 

7th.  Evaporate  rapidly,  skimming  from  time  to  time  any  scum 
which  appears  upon  the  surface,  and  adding  solution  B  in  small 
quantities  if  the  boiling  juice  will  not  turn  the  blue  litmus  paper 
red. 

8th.  When  the  thermometer  in  the  boiling  juice  indicates  a  tem- 
perature of  235°  Fahrenheit  (equal  to  112°  Centigrade)  the  syrup 
should  be  withdrawn  from  the  fire,  and  it  should  be  kept  to  crys- 
tallize in  a  room  of  about  80°  Fahrenheit,  (equal  to  27°  Centi- 
grade.) * 

*  To  facilitate  crystallization  a  few  grains  of  granulated  sugar  may  be 
added  to  the  cooling  syrup  \vhen  it  has  reached  a  temperature  of  100°  Fah- 
renheit, (equal  to  38°  Centigrade.) 


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